PhD Student or Postdoctoral Researcher for Water Treatment Unit Breadboard Project
In the context of long duration human space missions, water becomes an essential resource. It will be needed not only for drinking but also to meet the hygienic requirements of the crew. A future planetary mission with 6 crew members is expected to consume up to 166 liters per day. This amount of liquid clearly justifies the necessity of implementing efficient, reliable and safe water-recycling systems as full water re-supplying will simply be unfeasibility.
The purpose of this project is to design and build a system which combines urine nitrification with membrane units recovering water from the nitrified urine blended with grey water. This highly automated system will have an approximate cost of >200 kEUR, will be size for 1 astronaut, and will be operated with real urine and grey water, to demonstrate its high functionality and robustness. Extensive testing, in-depth characterization and optimization of the process will consolidate the expected performances and physical characteristics, as well as reduce the system size. Read more...
