Dune Stillsuits Are Now Real

Admittedly, the new space suit doesn’t look as nearly as cool as the Dune stillsuit, but when designing things to accommodate people in the hostile environments of space, designers and engineers tend to prioritize function over form.

And that’s precisely where the inspiration comes from—the new prototype space suit system for the astronaut is capable of recycling all bodily fluids into water that’s suitable for human consumption. Yes, that also includes recycling the astronauts’ urine and sweat into liquid necessary for life.

The newly designed Dune stillsuit system relies on in-suit urine collection and a filtration system that recycles urine using osmosis to remove contaminants from urine, filter it, and turn it into drinkable water.

But wait, doesn’t the International Space Station (ISS) recycle astronauts’ urine into drinkable water? Yes, it does; the Water Recovery System aboard the ISS is specifically designed to reclaim water from urine, sweat, and other sources and turn it into drinkable water, thus minimizing the amount of water that needs to be transported from Earth.

It’s a rather efficient system that’s capable of recovering anywhere between 75-85 percent of water from urine alone, with some losses due to brine residue. So, why would astronauts need Dune stillsuit-inspired gear? Well, every once in a while, astronauts have to go outside of their space habitat for extra-vehicular activities, or EVAs, and there were 37 recorded spacewalks between 2021 and 2023 that were conducted for either repairs or maintenance of the ISS or scientific experiments.

Each of these lasted an average of six and a half hours—some are known to last more than eight hours—during which astronauts have to go to the bathroom. And since there aren’t any bathrooms in space, Dune stillsuits come to the rescue.

Jokes aside, the Dune stillsuit-inspired system solves more than just the matter of nature’s call during spacewalks. With the current EVA suits, astronauts have to wear diapers (Maximum Absorbency Garments), which are pretty effective for dealing with nature’s call during spacewalks.

However, they pose a series of different challenges, such as discomfort, diaper leaking, skin rashes, odor issues, and a whole range of medical risks, including various infections and distress, which are only made worse by the lack of medical care on ISS.

Not only that, but astronauts also have a limited water supply while they’re out. Thus, the new Dune stillsuit system swats several flies with one swing: it resolves the discomfort and health issues associated with diapers and significantly enhances the astronauts’ access to drinkable water during spacewalks.

Source: Frontiers