The space station's regenerative life support hardware, called the Environmental Control and Life Support System, provides clean air and water for station crews. A new Brine Processor Assembly (BPA) will be tied into the system and allow more water to be recovered from crew urine. This new piece of technology ultimately will help scientists build better systems that can be used on future Moon and Mars missions and habitats.

ECLSS has enabled more crew members to live aboard the station for longer expeditions with fewer resource shipments. The key components of the regenerative ECLSS are the Water Recovery System and the Air Revitalization System.

The Air Revitalization System cleans the circulating cabin air by removing any contaminants, including carbon dioxide, and produces oxygen and replaces any oxygen lost to airlock depressurization and experimental use.

The Water Recovery System provides clean water for astronaut use by recycling urine, cabin humidity condensate from crew sweat, respiration, and hygiene, and water recovered from the Air Revitalization System. The Urine Processor Assembly, part of the Water Recovery System, was designed for 85% water recovery from crew urine and has been improved over the last year to now recover 87% because of analysis that showed there was still a margin against calcium sulfate precipitation. "That distillate is combined with the condensate and processed through the Water Processing Assembly (WPA), which recovers 100% of the water it processes," says Layne Carter, International Space Station Water Subsystem Manager at Marshall. "As a result, our overall water recovery is about 93.5%."