Water recycling is paramount for space stations and long-duration missions − an environmental engineer explains how the ISS does it

An image of the International Space Station, with its many solar panels and modules, floating above Earth in space.

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

When you're on a camping trip, you might have to pack your own food and maybe something to filter or treat water that you find. But imagine your campsite is in space, where there's no water, and packing jugs of water would take up room when every inch of cargo space counts. That's a key challenge engineers faced when designing the International Space Station.