Home makeover EXTREME!

I heard about this on the radio this week...

They launched the space shuttle this week to do a "home makeover" on the space station...

Here is a short excerpt from the longer linked article...

"Equipment headed to the station includes new sleeping quarters, a second toilet, a new exercise machine and equipment for generating oxygen. The 32,000-pound payload also includes a system to recycle water on the station, including urine, to produce purified water for drinking. The $250 million system is designed to recycle 93 percent of the water used on the station. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/science/space/15shuttle.html?ref=space

Now the part of that news that I have heard everyone talking about is the waste recycling going "icky!" at the thought of drinking recycled urine! For once my nerdy and redneck halves are in complete sync- we both chuckle at the thought that people don't seem to realize we are ALL drinking recycled urine. Yep that glass of water or coffee you just finished had urine in it at some point! It's all just part of the great circle of life people! :)

So that part of the story never caught my attention at all until other people were getting all gooey about it. The part of the article that did make my weird little mind go off on a tangent was the new exercise machine. I could not help but wonder if it would share the same fate as Earth bound exercise machines- Will it soon become a convenient towel rack or clothes hanger? Keeping in the spirit of it's environment they will probably hang space suits on it.