17. In space, approximately how much water does a person consume on a daily basis? How much water would be needed per person per day? (A K2S Question)

From The Space Library

On our current long-duration space mission aboard Space Station Freedom, we expect that human crewmembers of average health and build will require at least 55.70 pounds of water per day. The following table helps us understand how we arrive at these numbers:

In order to successfully provide for enough water on long-duration space missions, we are exploring ways to recycle water from showers, laundry, and even our own urine. Our goal is to be able to one day recycle all air, water, and solid wastes using biological, mechanical, and chemical processes. One such process is the use of bioreactors, which are small devices that use bacteria to remove organic waste from urine and other forms of waste water. Final purification promises to produce water of very high quality. The last step is to add iodine to kill all remaining bacteria in the recycled water to improve its taste and purity.

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Answer provided by Joe Rhemann

Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer

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