NASA Advances Water Recycling For Space Travel And Earth Use

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NASA Advances Water Recycling For Space Travel And Earth Use

snip....The Water Processing Assembly can daily produce 35 gallons of potable recycled water," said Bob Bagdigian, MSFC Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System Project Manager. After the new systems are installed, annual delivered water to the ISS should decrease by approximately 15,960 pounds, about 1,600 gallons. The WPA is scheduled for delivery in 2008.

Water purity is also important. Chemical and microbial contaminants make it unappetizing or unhealthy, and it can clog complicated fluid systems. The Aerobic Rotational Membrane System (ARMS) research project at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Fla., may help. "We're trying to move toward a biological treatment method using bacteria to help cleanse the water," said Tony Rector, Dynamac Corporation bioprocess engineer at KSC. The KSC prototype shop fabricated a model of the system. It is being tested inside KSC's Space Life Sciences Laboratory, and Rector and colleagues designed it.

At NASA's Ames Research Center (ARC), Moffett Field, Calif., a water recycler enabling reuse for three years without resupply is being developed on a timeline to fit into exploration plans, according to ARC scientist Michael Flynn. A preliminary engineering development unit can hourly recycle 13.2 pounds, about one gallon, of waste into drinkable water.

"If we were going to Mars tomorrow, this is the water treatment system astronauts might well use," Flynn said. He is developing it in cooperation with Water Reuse Technology, Inc., Garden Valley, Calif. "This unit can enable a six- person crew to shower, wash clothes and dishes, drink water and flush toilets over three years without resupply," Flynn said....cont'd

URL: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041114233648.htm

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1. Fine, but only if they start trying to preserve...

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