Colorado video makers find water-saving lessons in outer space

Clean drinking water is precious, and nowhere is it more precious than in space — where astronauts rely on the limited amount of water that can be packed aboard for the duration of the trip.

So astronauts use, recycle and re-use the water — and so can we here at home in the arid west.

That’s the message of an 8-minute video, called “Out of This World Water Conservation,” put together Hughes & Stuart Sustainable Marketing in Greenwood Village, which teamed with Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. in Jefferson County. The video is available here.

As the video flips between images of space, rockets, astronauts bouncing in zero-gravity and scenes of subdivisions, drought-tolerant plants and dry landscapes, the narrator discusses the connection between water conservation tactics in space and how they can be adapted on earth.

Things earth-dwellers can do include turning off the water while brushing their teeth or shaving, using water-efficient appliances and installing drought-tolerant landscaping.

But in the ‘who knew?’ category, astronauts get four liters — about a gallon — of water for bathing on space missions, versus the 50 liters — or 13 gallons — a bath or shower typically uses on earth.

Also, the Orion spacecraft, which Lockheed is working on for NASA (but whose continued funding is in doubt), expects to take about 300 gallons of water on a 21-day space mission, about what an average family uses on earth, according to the video.

The video was produced on behalf of 18 water utilities (DCWater.org) serving 325,000 residents in Douglas County. It features four-time NASA astronaut Brian Duffy; U.S. Rep. Grace Napolitano, a Democrat from California and chair of House Water & Power subcommittee; U.S. Commissioner of Reclamation Michael Connor; Douglas County Commissioner Jill Repella; and Castle Rock Utilities Manager Ron Redd.

Hughes & Stuart said it’s offering the video to be customized to any community in Colorado, especially rural cities, or outside of the state to other drought affected western states to further promote water efficiency.

The video drew a Telly Award, named for a New York City based organization that judges advertising work, according to Hughes & Stuart.

Cathy Proctor, Denver Business Journal