That sounds pretty disgusting when you think about it, even though we are saying that the urine will be recycled! Irrespective of your personal tastes and fancy for delicacies, if you want to be a part of the crew that constantly keeps the International Space Station in shape and gets a fabulous view of the Earth and the vast cosmos, then you will have to get used to slight taste of Iodine in your water. But when you ask the people who have tasted the water from recycled urine on ISS, they will tell you that it tastes just fine.

Until now, space shuttle programs that constantly visit the space center have been carrying water with them, but that luxury will cease from 2010 and astronauts will have to recycle their own urine and drink it the next day. The system though produces pure water and is not at all as disgusting as it sounds. The technique of purification has been successful on earth and now will have to be fully tested in zero gravity for final approval.

The new technique of recycling allows the space station to be largely self sufficient and with the way fresh water resources are dwindling across the globe, the same process might hit our homes in a couple of generations’ time. Look, if you are putting me in space, keeping me there for several months on your own money and giving me that awesome trip of ‘once in a lifetime’, then I have absolutely no problem drinking from recycled urine. Sign me up NASA!

Via: cnet