The idea of drinking your own urine might sound like a survival technique promoted by Bear Grylls. But it could soon become a reality for astronauts, thanks to a new Dune-inspired spacesuit. The spacesuit is the brainchild of researchers from Cornell University and features a futuristic device that can recycle urine into drinking water. While the suit is still a prototype, it could be a godsend for astronauts, who are currently forced to relieve themselves inside their spacesuits during long spacewalks. 'The design includes a vacuum-based external catheter leading to a combined forward-reverse osmosis unit, providing a continuous supply of potable water with multiple safety mechanisms to ensure astronaut wellbeing,' said Sofia Etlin, first author of the study.

Don't tell Frank Herbert (or the people at Thinx), but he actually came up with a pretty genius pair of menstrual underwear. Only, well, his was outerwear--and it did a lot more than collect blood and endometrial lining. Herbert's invention is, of course, the stillsuit. One of the iconic pieces of tech in his novel Dune--and an iconic piece of sci-fi tech, period--it's an invention born of necessity. Arrakis, where most of the novel takes place, is a desert; to survive, the planet's native Fremen construct form-fitting suits that collect all of their moist excretions--sweat, urine, feces, droplets from exhaled breath--and recycle them into potable water.