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A trade study conducted in 2001 selected a rotary disk separator as the best candidate to meet the requirements for an International Space Station (ISS) Carbon Dioxide Reduction Assembly (CRA). The selected technology must provide micro-gravity gas/liquid separation and pump the liquid from 69 kPa (10 psia) at the gas/liquid interface to 124 kPa (18 psia) at the wastewater bus storage tank. The rotary disk concept, which has pedigree in other systems currently being built for installation on the ISS, failed to achieve the required pumping head within the allotted power. The separator discussed in this paper is a new design that was tested to determine compliance with performance requirements in the CRA. The drum separator and pump (DSP) design is similar to the Oxygen Generator Assembly (OGA) Rotary Separator Accumulator (RSA) in that it has a rotating assembly inside a stationary housing driven by a integral internal motor[1].

Design concepts for the International Space Station Water Processor (WP) will be validated as discrete flight experiments on-board the Space Shuttle Spacehab. This paper summarizes the results of a study into sample stability within a modified Teflon cell culture bag assembly to support an upcoming Spacehab evaluation of the WP Volatile Removal Assembly (VRA). Results indicate that a lack of adequate preservation results in significant sample analyte degradation over the course of 2-3 week due to increased microbial activity. Results were utilized for the definition of an optimal preservation approach based on the anticipated VRA Flight Experiment samples.