Astronaut’s urine to be recycled as nutrients

Astronauts cannot carry a lot of spare parts into space because every extra kilogram adds to the cost of fuel needed to escape the Earth’s gravity. For astronauts who are going to make journeys that span several years, scientists needed to find a way to reuse and recycle everything they had in hand. 

Scientists have discovered a yeast commonly found in cheese, which needs nitrogen and carbon-di-oxide to grow. They can thus use the urea of urine for producing nitrogen. This particular form of yeast will be used to help the astronaut turn his urine to food and plastics.

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