In-Line Filtration Improves Hygiene and Reduces Expense

Water is highly prized in the unforgiving realm of space travel and habitation. Ample water reserves for drinking, food preparation, and bathing would take up an inordinate amount of storage space and infrastructure, which is always at a premium on a vessel or station. Water rationing and recycling are thus an essential part of daily life and operations on the space shuttles and International Space Station (ISS). The Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS), under continuing development at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, helps astronauts use and reuse their supplies of water.