How Mars astronauts could turn pee into plastics
“Imagine you're on your way to Mars, and you lose a crucial tool during a spacewalk... you'll simply re-enter your spacecraft and use some microorganisms to convert your urine and exhaled carbon dioxide (CO2) into chemicals to make a new one,” according to a statement from the American Chemical Society and Professor Blenner.
The system that Blenner developed uses a variety of strains of the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica, which require both nitrogen and carbon to grow. Blenner's team at Clemson discovered that the yeast can get their nitrogen from urea in untreated urine.