NASA will soon be recycling urine from humans and lab animals, as well as water used for washing and other necessities, in space stations for astronauts' consumption. Thanks to a high-tech water recovery system (WRS), all kinds of waste water will become potable, even better than city tap. "This recycled water is thousands of times better than the water taken from water treatment plants on the Earth," say NASA officials.

Currently, each International Space Station member user, according to NASA, consumes 4.4 litres (1.2 gallons) each day of water. One litre of water is estimated to cost 11,000 U.S. dollars. The cost to transport water up to the ISS each year? A whopping 24 million dollars.

With the new WRS set to be transported to the ISS in October 2008, the crew will be able to recycle 93 percent of all water used on the station. About 85 percent of urine will also be reused.

(Source: http://www.itwire.com/content/view/10706/1066/)