Search Results

In spacecraft life support systems which are partially or fully closed, the air and water systems have sufficient interaction that contaminants in one system may become contaminants in the other. Life support system designers typically consider these media separately. In order to develop plausible and appropriate drinking water contaminant standards for longer-term NASA space missions, we performed a human health risk characterization using toxicological and exposure values typical of space operations and crew. It showed that the greatest waterborne health concern was from acute microbial infection leading to incapacitating gastrointestinal illness. While substantial data gaps exist for toxicities and exposures, ingestion exposure pathways for toxic materials yielded de minimus acute health risks unlikely to affect SEI space missions. Risks of chronic health problems from the relatively short exposures of expected space missions were within acceptable public health limits.

It has been proposed to use plants as elements of biologically-based life support systems for long-term space missions. Three roles have been brought forth for plants in this application: recycling of water, regeneration of air and production of food. This report discusses recycling of water and presents data from investigations of plant transpiration water quality. Aqueous nutrient solution was applied to several plant species and transpired water collected. Our findings indicated that this water typically contained 0.3-6 ppm of total organic carbon, which meets hygiene water standards for NASA's space applications. It suggests that this method could be developed to achieve potable water standards.