Former Nasa intern creates a US$2,500 shower that never runs out of hot water

When Mehrdad Mahdjoubi was in college, he landed an internship at Nasa's Johnson Space Center working in the Mars programme. Those in the space industry are deadset on sending humans to colonise Mars, and the notion has taken on an epic, even romanticised aura.

But what people do not realise is that life on Mars, especially for those early colonists, cannot possibly equal the lifestyle humans have on Earth, given the lack of infrastructure.

“The whole notion about going to space is attractive,” Mahdjoubi said. “But if they tell you, you'd have to wear a diaper and you could never take a shower again, you would think twice.”

Therefore, Nasa works with industrial designers such as Mahdjoubi in a variety of ways to help create human-friendlier environments that take into account the total lack of resources in space, or on Mars.

They don't take showers on the space station, exactly – astronauts sort of wipe themselves off with a soap-like substance. One problem that engineers were able to solve is how to recycle every drop of water. Americans go all-in, too. Not only do they recycle so-called grey water used on washing up, they even turn their urine into drinkable water.

To do this, the designers for Nasa created a special high powered filter. It removes any stray particles, as well as bacteria or other dangerous things, and returns just potable water.

When Mahdjoubi left US space agency Nasa and moved back to his home country in Sweden, his time at Nasa inspired him to create his own version of that filter, and build it into a shower for earthlings. His design uses far less water than a typical shower, while maintaining its heat and water pressure.