NASA to Present on Direct Potable Reuse in Space at the 28th Annual WateReuse Symposium

The 28th Annual WateReuse Symposium, to be held September 15-18 in Denver, CO, will offer 111 technical presentations on water reuse and desalination and a unique closing panel discussion on how NASA uses direct potable reuse technologies to provide water in space. The session is titled “Water Reuse: To Infinity and Beyond.”

Water reuse is a key to sustainability of crews on the International Space Station .Since 2009, crews have used a U.S. Water Recovery System that recovers humidity condensate and urine distillate, and reclaims it as essentially 100% of the water needed by the crew and systems. This high-profile direct potable reuse scenario is the result of many years of careful research, design, and planning.

NASA experts will describe the history and lessons learned from implementation of this system in an extreme environment. Moreover, experts will highlight pertinent issues such as the challenge of pharmaceutical and personal care products. The audience will come away with a firmer understanding of how water reuse is an enabling technology for human spaceflight, and will gain an appreciation for why spaceflight water reuse represents our current earth-based water resource challenges in microcosm.

The presenters will be Torin McCoy, Environmental Sciences Branch Chief, NASA Johnson Space Center; Layne Carter, Senior Environmental Engineer, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center; and Dr. Daniel Gazda, Senior Scientist, Wyle Laboratories, Johnson Space Center.

For more information about the 28th Annual WateReuse Symposium, visit http://www.reclaimedwater.net/index.php/news/view/news_id/621.