Spacecraft Water Recovery System — 2D Flow Diagram

Every long-duration spacecraft closes its water loop with a vapor-compression distillation unit that boils, recompresses and condenses wastewater back into drinkable water. This 2D schematic renders the same real mass balance as the 3D version: adjust crew size, how much wastewater actually reaches the distiller, and the unit's single-pass recovery efficiency, and watch particles of contaminated feed split into a potable stream and a brine stream in that exact ratio while a live reserve tank and scrolling strip-chart track whether the loop is actually closing. Drag to pan and scroll to zoom the diagram. A Filter Fouling Event button drops efficiency for a few simulated days so you can see how quickly even a modest efficiency loss turns a stable reserve into a draining one — the same reason real ECLSS hardware is built for 90%+ recovery rather than "good enough."