New ISS piss-extractor drinks unit to go up on Discovery

Contrary to earlier reports, it now appears that troublesome equipment recently installed aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to reprocess astronaut urine into drinkable water is still not working. Worried NASA chiefs intend to rush replacement golden-beverage equipment into space on the next shuttle flight. The NASA …

[Anonymous Coward]

hmmm...

"this presents something of a watershed in the ISS' history"

i see what you're doing there :)

[filey]

really?

Are you taking the piss? or are you just extracting the urine (as a nerd would say)

im sure the end result beats what is in most bottled water these days.

[Adrian]

Obvious solution

Since they seem to be p!$$ing in the wind, drop the ISS down to a level and scope up the urine.

And no, I'm not taking the p!$$

[James]

Stick out your thumb

Why not direct the shuttle towards a passing asteroid to extract some water?

[Edwin]

Is it just me

or is the adolescent bodily-function humour in these stories getting a touch old?

[Anonymous Coward]

Upmass ?

Oh god.

[Steven Swenson]

Is it really that expensive?

I seem to remember the Urine Processor Assembly was a much simpler device in Waterworld.

[Nick Palmer]

Just...

...fly up some Budweiser - they'll never know the difference...

[Hugh]

Would want to test it...

I wouldn't have wanted to be the first person to realise it wasn't working...

[Seeker]

Couldn't they use reverse osmosis instead?

.. to purify the water? Using a semi permeable membrane that only lets through water molecules (already developed) and is Bob your mothers brother? Am I missing a trick here?