Warner Bros.
The Fremen who inhabit the harsh desert world of Arrakis in Frank Herbert's Dune must rely on full-body “stillsuits” for their survival, which recycle absorbed sweat and urine into drinking water. Now, science fiction is about to become science fact: Researchers at Cornell University have designed a prototype stillsuit for astronauts that recycles their urine into drinking water during spacewalks, according to a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Space Technologies.
Herbert provided specific details about the stillsuit's design when planetary scientist Liet Kynes explained the technology to Duke Leto Atreides I:
It is essentially a micro-sandwich: a highly efficient filter and heat exchange system. The skin contact layer is porous. Perspiration passes through it, after the body has cooled… almost a normal evaporation process. The next two layers… include heat exchange filaments and salt precipitators. Salt is recovered. Body movements, particularly breathing and some osmotic action provide the pumping power. Recovered water circulates to collection bags from which you suck it through this tube in the clip on your neck… Urine and feces are processed in the thigh pads. In the open desert you wear this filter over your face, this tube in your nostrils with these plugs to ensure a tight fit. Breathe in through the mouth filter, out through the nose tube. With a properly functioning Fremen suit you lose no more than a thimbleful of moisture per day…
The Illustrated Dune Encyclopedia interpreted the stillsuit as something akin to a hazmat suit, without the full face covering. In David Lynch's 1984 film, Dunethe stillsuits were organic and very form-fitting compared to the book description, almost like a second skin. The stillsuits in Denis Villeneuve's most recent film adaptations (Dune Part 1 And Part 2) tried to stay closer to the source material, using 'micro-sandwiches' of acrylic fibers and porous cotton and embedded tubes for better flexibility.
Universal images
The Cornell team isn’t the first to attempt a practical stillsuit. Hacksmith Industries did a “one-day build” of a stillsuit last month, after previously tackling Thor’s Stormbreaker axe, Captain America’s electromagnetic shield and a plasma-powered lightsaber, among other projects. The Hacksmith team steered clear of the gross aspects of recycling urine and feces and focused on recycling sweat and moisture from breath.
Their version consists of a waterproof baggy suit (replaced in the final version by a more form-fitting bunny suit) with a battery-powered heat exchanger on the back. Any moisture condenses on the surface of the suit and drips into a bottle attached to a CamelBak bladder. There’s a filtering mask attached to a tube through which the wearer can inhale filtered air, but it’s one way; exhaled air is diverted to the condenser so that its water content can be harvested into the CamelBak bladder and then sent back to the mask for the user to drink. It’s not even close to Herbert’s stated thimbleful per day in terms of efficiency, as it’s mostly recycling moisture from sweat on the wearer’s back. But it worked.
