Water is ook voor astronauten van groot belang, maar omdat het zoveel weegt is het lastig om de ruimte in te krijgen.

[In een blog](http://blogs.esa.int/iriss/2015/08/19/biomimetic-membrane-copying-nature-to-purify-water-in-space/) van het Euopean Space Agency staat dat de huidige technologie om zweet en urine te filteren vrij zwaar (zo'n 150 kg) en lomp is. Daarnaast moet het systeem vaak vervangen worden omdat het vaak verstopt raakt. Maar een Deens bedrijf claimt dat zei een verbeterd systeem hebben gemaakt. Door afvalwater te filteren willen ze zowel de astronauten als de mensen op de wereld voorzien van schoon drinkwater.

Aquaporin Space Alliance, een samenwerking tussen een Deens schoonmaaktechnologie- en ruimtevaartbedrijf, heeft het biomimetische "AquaMembrane" systeem gemaakt dat door middel van nanotechnologie en eiwitten het afvalwater filtert. [Aquaporin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaporin)[e](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaporin) is een eiwit dat de watervoorraad in organismen regelt. Het AquaMembrane pakket is gemaakt van aquaporine-eiwit op een membraan van holle vezels.

Learn More:
http://DrinkingWater.NoBSWater.com/

I'm on my way home from a conference of Life Support Water enthusiasts.  Do such people exist?  By the thousands.  These are people whose lives have improved by switching from drinking bottled water or tap water to optimized Life Support Water.  I'm one of them.  Many of us get together at different times of the year to learn from each other and celebrate the probable extension of our lives.

Extension of our lives?  That's what some of the new research says.  In fact, when it comes to anti-aging, drinking plenty of WATER ranks top on the list (as opposed to coffee, tea, milk, juice, etc.).  So us Life Support Water enthusiasts get together to learn and play in our newfound youth (or at least wrinkling a whole lot more slowly).

I got to run into one of my old friends that I've referred to in a previous post as "Dr Harvard."  I call him that because he both graduated from Harvard and then taught surgery there to medical students for many years.  Dr Harvard always has some interesting things to say.

At this conference he reminded us of the discovery of aquaporins, so I decided to share here.  You may never have heard of that word, but you're alive because of them.  We all know that water is absolutely vital for life and the function of every cell in your body.  But there's a puzzle that was only solved 10 years ago.  

Cell membranes, those little bags that hold all the good stuff inside our cells, are made of fat called phospholipids.  Under most circumstances oil (a type of fat) and water don't mix, and there's no exception here.  If that's the case, how does water get into and out of our cells rapidly enough to support life?

Cell walls are a little leaky and water can diffuse across the membrane very slowly, but if that were the only mechanism, we would all be dead.  I'm not into being dead.  I'll assume since you're reading this, that you're not into being dead either.

Water moves much faster across cell membranes than can be explained by simple leaky diffusion.  It HAS to move rapidly for our biological machinery to function.  The discovery of aquaporins in 1993 explained how that was possible.  If you think that's not much of a big deal, think again.  The discoverer, Peter Agre, was awarded the Nobel Prize for this discovery.

Aquaporins are HOLES in the cell membrane created by proteins.  There are different types of aquaporins, but they are necessary to move water in and out of your cells.  Water molecules actually pass through these holes in single file.  These aquaporins are so specialized that they can let water molecules through, but not charged electrolytes.  Pretty good guards for the precious inside of our cells, huh?

I've always been fascinated by how the body works and I know you might as well.  Keeping our minds open to new discoveries is always the best policy.  Decades ago there was a special type of water discovered that we call Life Support Water.  One of its properties is that the water molecules seem to have less of an attraction to each other.  Here's my best analogy for that.  We are held on to the earth because of gravity.  If earth's gravity were to suddenly become less, we could all jump much higher.  We could break away from the earth's pull just a little bit easier (can you imagine how high they would have to make the nets in basketball?  That would be seriously fun to watch).

But I digress.  Water molecules are attracted to each other by forces analogous to gravity, but on a much smaller scale.  If that attraction could be lessened, that means one single water molecule could break away from the herd a little easier.  Would that make it possible for this water to get inside your cell wall at an even faster rate than other water?  Aquaporins require single file movement of water molecules into and out of our cells.  Early evidence seems to show that Life Support Water actually behaves that way (it gets into your cells at a much higher rate and more efficiently).  Therefore, it can hydrate you better than other waters at the cellular level, which is where it really counts.

On one of our water education webinars, we show this very feature.  If curiosity is overwhelming you, join us and we'll show you why all water is not the same.

Learn More:
http://DrinkingWater.NoBSWater.com/

Aquaporins

Wat zo effectief is aan dit soort membranen is dat ze watermoleculen doorlaten, maar ionen zoals zout blokkeren. Hierdoor wordt er een proces in gang gezet dat [directe osmose](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_osmosis) wordt genoemd, waarbij water continu van de ene naar de andere kant van het membraan vloeit.

De Deense astronaut Andreas Morgensen zal drie van deze AquaMembrane-sytemen voor de eerste keer gaan testen als hij [aankomt op het ISS](http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/iriss/Dates_and_facts). [Morgensen](http://blogs.esa.int/iriss/2015/08/19/biomimetic-membrane-copying-nature-to-purify-water-in-space/) [zal](http://blogs.esa.int/iriss/2015/08/19/biomimetic-membrane-copying-nature-to-purify-water-in-space/) drie keer 300ml afvalwater moeten filteren. Het gefilterde water zal teruggestuurd worden naar de Aarde voor verder onderzoek.

Voor astronauten en ruimtevaarttechnici zal deze nieuwe techniek zal dit een welkome uitvinding zijn. Zij hoeven zich nu minder zorgen te maken over de voorraad en aanvoer van drinkwater tijdens bijvoorbeeld lange ruimtereizen. Op aarde willen de makers van AquaMembrane de technologie eind dit jaar massaproduceren om meer mensen toegang tot schoon drinkwater te geven.

Motherboard

nasa

Tech

Dankzij dit kleinere en lichtere systeem hoeven de astronauten zich geen zorgen meer te maken over genoeg drinkwater tijdens lange ruimtereizen.

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Er is een nieuw systeem ontwikkeld om urine en zweet om te zetten in drinkwater

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Er is een nieuw systeem ontwikkeld om urine en zweet om te zetten in drinkwater

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