Objectives
The VRA is a water treatment system to be used for the recovery of water from the waste water aboard the U.S. portion of the International Space Station. The VRA experiment was designed to verify a high temperature catalytic oxidation process, which is to meet final portable water standards for ISS.
Shuttle-Mir Missions Approach Results
No experiment data was obtained during STS-89. Assessments are in work in an effort to refly this experiment.
Publications Principal Investigators
STS-89
The Volatile Removal Assembly removes residual organics and microorganisms remaining after primary water treatment using particulate filtration, ion exchange, and absorption. These combined treatments will recover potable water from humidity condensate, urine distillate, and waste water effluents.
The experiment was flown on STS-89. Unfortunately, the hardware experienced a premature non-recoverable failure during the first experiment run. A regulator failed as a result of particulate contamination, which caused interference with the valve assembly operation resulting in a low flow experiment shutdown. For reflight of the VRA, a filter and a screen could be added to prevent particulate contamination.
Dynacs Engineering Company. ISS Phase 1 Risk Mitigation Experiments and Technology Demonstration summaries and Lessons Learned. ISS Phase 1 RME Forum. JSC 28080 Revision A. Houston, TX. August 1998.
Donald Holder
NASA/Johnson Space Center
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Curator:
Julie Oliveaux
Responsible NASA Official: John Uri |
Page last updated: 07/16/1999