Browsing by Author "Williamson, Jill"

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Brine Processor Assembly 2023-24: Operational Successes and Challenges on the International Space Station
(2024 International Conference on Environmnetal Systems, 2024-07-21) Boyce, Stephanie; Joyce, Connor; Pasadilla, Patrick; Palmer, Travis; Wilson, Jonathan P.; Williamson, Jill; Toon, Katherine
The Brine Processor Assembly (BPA), developed by Paragon Space Development Corporation as a one-year technology demonstration, has now been in operation onboard the International Space Station (ISS) for three years. BPA recovers available water from urine-brine produced by the ISS Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) via forced convection of cabin air coupled with a patented membrane distillation process. A dual-layer ionomer and microporous membrane-based bladder retains the liquid brine while water vapor pervaporates into the cabin, for collection as humidity condensate. This paper will discuss updated performance results as well as the practical operational challenges of maintaining hardware on the ISS. In August 2023, BPA operations were automatically halted when the Brine Leak Alarm annunciated. Crew opened the BPA to confirm that there was no actual leakage of brine, upon which it was discovered that corrosion had developed on the Brine Leak Sensor. Paragon has been working with NASA to extend the life of the sensor and safely operate BPA, as well as to launch the spare replacement component. As of May 2024, 41 full operational runs have been completed spanning 612 days of active operations, recovering an estimated 741 kg (L) of water from urine-brine. This represents a cost savings of over $80 million from the mass of water that has not needed to be launched to or discarded on ISS, minus the cost of consumables (bladders and odor filters). The BPA currently has an impressive 6x water-to-up mass recovery ratio, meaning BPA has recovered 6x as much water as the mass of the BPA hardware itself and all consumables (bladders, spares, and odor filters). This has helped NASA to claim 98% water recovery on ISS, achieving an essential capability to enable human exploration of deeper space.
Brine Processor Assembly: A Year of Successful Operation on the International Space Station
(2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2023-07-16) Boyce, Stephanie; Joyce, Connor; Pasadilla, Patrick; Tewes, Phillip; Wilson, Jonathan P.; Williamson, Jill; Toon, Katherine
Paragon Space Development Corporation developed a Brine Processor Assembly (BPA) as a technical demonstration for the International Space Station (ISS), which has now been operating continuously for 18 months. BPA recovers water from urine brine produced by the ISS Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) via forced convection of cabin air coupled with a patented membrane distillation process. An ionomer-microporous membrane-based bladder retains the liquid brine while water vapor pervaporates into the cabin, for collection as humidity condensate. This paper will discuss progress to-date on BPA performance. As of May 2023, 22 full operational runs have been completed, recovering nearly 400 L of water from urine brine. This represents a cost savings of over $40 Million from the mass of water that has not needed to be launched to or discarded on ISS, minus the cost of consumables (bladders and odor filters). On orbit telemetry has been used to further refine the thermal model for more accurate predictions of water recovery. Water recovery operations continue to align closely with ground test results, and the added exhaust filter has performed well in eliminating nuisance odor. Several dewatered bladders have been returned to Earth to assess the inner membrane pore wetting, confirm dewatered weight, as well as to assess dewatered brine concentration and composition at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). By increasing overall water recovery on ISS, BPA demonstrates a critical capability needed to close the water processing technology gap identified in NASA�s Water Recovery Technology Roadmap. The continued on-orbit operations of BPA contribute significant knowledge and understanding to the most efficient methods to recover water and inform best practices for future implementation of Paragon�s water reclamation technologies. This technology achieves an essential capability to enable human exploration of deep space.
Closing the Water Loop for Exploration: 2022 Status of the Brine Processor Assembly
(51st International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/10/2022) Boyce, Stephanie; Molina, Sunday; Harrington, Walter; Joyce, Connor; Pasadilla, Patrick; Tewes, Philipp; Williamson, Jill; Perry, Jay; Toon, Katherine; Meyer, Caitlin; Harper, Susana Tapia
Paragon Space Development Corporation developed a Brine Processor Assembly (BPA) for demonstration on the International Space Station (ISS). BPA recovers water from urine brine produced by the ISS Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) via a patented process and ground testing has demonstrated water recovery rates greater than 90% from the previously concentrated urine brine. BPA utilizes the forced convection of spacecraft cabin air coupled with a membrane distillation process to recover purified water from 22.5 liters of brine within a 26 day cycle. By increasing overall water recovery on ISS to greater than 98%, BPA demonstrates a critical capability needed to close the brine processing technology gap identified in NASA's Water Recovery Technology Roadmap. This paper discusses operational progress since launch to the ISS in February 2021. After installation, checkout, and activation on the ISS, BPA operations were successfully initiated in April 2021. Despite successful nominal operation, crew members expressed discomfort due to malodor from effluent BPA air. After the initial dewatering cycle was completed, it was determined that BPA would need to mitigate odor before on-orbit operations resumed. To address these concerns, an outlet filter system was developed, and an extensive characterization study was conducted to test the efficacy of the filter in reducing odor. This study included analysis of gas, odor, and condensate samples of filtered and unfiltered effluent air during a brine dewatering cycle with an identical BPA ground unit. The filter assembly demonstrated > 85% first pass reduction in odor without detrimental effects to BPA operations. As a result, a similar assembly was launched to the ISS, installed, and BPA operations were resumed in October 2021. This technology achieves an essential capability to enable human exploration of deeper space, and this experiment was an opportunity to identify the importance of human factors in life support spaceflight hardware.
Development and Testing of a New Partial Gravity Urine Processor Design and Urine Pretreatment
(2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2023-07-16) Caviglia, Colton; Williamson, Jill; Velez Justiniano, Yo-Ann; McCool, Chelsea; Cassilly, Chelsi
The Planetary Urine Processor (PUP) is a proposed urine distillation system for lunar or planetary applications, taking advantage of local gravity for phase separation as well as the movement and storage of waste feeds and product water. The PUP utilizes a stationary evaporator with an integrated disposable bag to process urine and capture remaining precipitates. This system aims to increase water reclamation percentage, reduce resource requirements, and enhance reliability/maintainability due to lower system complexity over the existing water recovery system used on the International Space Station (ISS). This paper focuses on the hardware development and testing efforts and the associated urine pretreatment development work.
Ground Test Validations for Uncrewed Dormancy Preparation and Recovery
(2024 International Conference on Environmnetal Systems, 2024-07-21) Beitle, Eric; McCormick, Robert; McCall, Shannon; Sandvik, Elizabeth; Velez Justiniano, Yo-Ann; Williamson, Jill
In future long-duration space flight and habitation missions, periods of uncrewed dormancy where life support systems are shutdown or in low power modes will occur. To examine the impacts of these dormant periods in water recycling systems, along with potential pre- and post-dormancy procedures, Marshall Space Flight Center has been building up an uncrewed dormancy test stand. The uncrewed dormancy test stand will include a urine separator from the Universal Waste Management System, a condensate separator, urine filter, brine filter and distillate filter. In conjunction to the test stand, the Center for Biofilm Engineering has been comparing effects of simulated shutdown procedures on microbial survival and material compatibility during dormancy and regrowth when systems resume operation. This publication will serve as an update on the test stand construction, including a description of the current lower fidelity versions of the urine and condensate separators being produced. It will also examine dormancy work being conducted by CBE and discuss how this may factor into procedures tested on the uncrewed dormancy test stand.
NASA Exploration Toilet On-orbit Results and Impact on Future Missions
(2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2023) McKinley, Melissa; Borrego, Melissa; Kaufman, Cory; Williamson, Jill; DeRees, Kelly
The Universal Waste Management System (UWMS), which has the ISS operational nomenclature “Toilet”, was initially installed on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2020 with final installation completed in 2021. Technical progress continued to be made with each on-orbit operation that culminated in additional crew use of the UWMS on ISS. Additional problems were evaluated during troubleshooting and testing with the UWMS hardware using water and pretreat to simulate crew use. This paper summarizes the additional testing, troubleshooting and the results as well as characterizes the additional data obtained and summarizes the interpretation of the data to characterize the hardware’s operational nuances. Use of the hardware by crew is planned and will also be summarized. The paper will also describe the additional portions of the technology demonstration that were completed and the benefits that inform the Orion-installed UWMS unit and future manifesting of consumables for both Orion and ISS.
Overview of the International Space Station’s Water and Cabin Air Quality: A Five-Year Status
(2024 International Conference on Environmnetal Systems, 2024-07-21) Williamson, Jill; Kayatin, Matthew; Nguyen, Hang; Hudson, Ed; Wallace, William; Williams, Spencer; Castro-Wallace, Sarah; Muirhead, Dean; McCool, Chelsea
Since the beginning of the International Space Station (ISS), water and air quality have been monitored to ensure crew health and verify the performance of the regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) systems. Over the last 25 years, the ISS has evolved greatly with significant changes to operations, crew complement sizes, visiting vehicles, payloads, and upgrades within the regenerative hardware, seen through Technology Demonstration integrations. In particular, better assessment and prevention of volatile organic releases from payloads and crew hygiene products, and implementation of advance sorbents both on the air and water strings have been successful in reducing contaminant loads. Data on air and water quality for the last five years on ISS will be presented (nominal and contingency air grab samples, in-flight monitoring for air and water quality, and water samples from all segments of the ISS water system), including some notable events. The available data demonstrate the performance of existing ECLS systems and overall status of how the approach to air and water quality have evolved through the new ISS architecture baseline operations.
Preventing Precipitation in the ISS Urine Processor
(48th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2018-07-08) Carter, Donald; Muirhead, Dean; Williamson, Jill
The ISS Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) was initially designed to achieve 85% recovery of water from pretreated urine on ISS. Pretreated urine is comprised of crew urine treated with flush water, an oxidant (chromium trioxide), and an inorganic acid (sulfuric acid) to control microbial growth and inhibit precipitation. Unfortunately, initial operation of the UPA on ISS resulted in the precipitation of calcium sulfate at 85% recovery. This occurred because the calcium concentration in the crew urine was elevated in microgravity due to bone loss. The higher calcium concentration precipitated with sulfate from the pretreatment acid, resulting in a failure of the UPA due to the accumulation of solids in the Distillation Assembly. Since this failure, the UPA has been limited to a reduced recovery of water from urine to prevent calcium sulfate from reaching the solubility limit. NASA personnel have worked to identify a solution that would allow the UPA to return to a nominal recovery rate of 85%. This effort has culminated with the development of a pretreatment based on phosphoric acid instead of sulfuric acid. By eliminating the sulfate associated with the pretreatment, the brine can be concentrated to a much higher concentration before calcium sulfate reach the solubility limit. This paper summarizes the development of this pretreatment and the testing performed to verify its implementation on ISS.
Status of ISS Water Management and Recovery
(51st International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/10/2022) Williamson, Jill; Gleich, Andrew; Wilson, Jonathan
Water management on ISS is responsible for the provision of water to the crew for drinking water, food preparation, and hygiene, to the Oxygen Generation System (OGS) for oxygen production via electrolysis, to the Waste & Hygiene Compartment (WHC) for flush water, and for experiments on ISS. This paper summarizes water management activities on the ISS US Segment as of March 2022 and provides a status of the performance and issues related to the operation of the Water Processor Assembly (WPA) and Urine Processor Assembly (UPA).
Status of ISS Water Management and Recovery
(48th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2018-07-08) Carter, Donald; Schaezler, Ryan; Williamson, Jill; Thomas, Alfred; Gazda, Daniel; Brown, Chris; Bazley, Jesse
Water management on ISS is responsible for the provision of water to the crew for drinking water, food preparation, and hygiene, to the Oxygen Generation System (OGS) for oxygen production via electrolysis, to the Waste & Hygiene Compartment (WHC) for flush water, and for experiments on ISS. This paper summarizes water management activities on the ISS US Segment and provides a status of the performance and issues related to the operation of the Water Processor Assembly (WPA) and Urine Processor Assembly (UPA). This paper summarizes the on-orbit status as of June 2018 and describes the technical challenges encountered and lessons learned over the past year.
Status of ISS Water Management and Recovery
(49th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2019-07-07) Carter, Layne; Williamson, Jill; Gazda, Daniel; Brown, Chris; Schaezler, Ryan; Thomas, Frank; Bazley, Jesse; Molina, Sunday
Water management on ISS is responsible for the provision of water to the crew for drinking water, food preparation, and hygiene, to the Oxygen Generation System (OGS) for oxygen production via electrolysis, to the Waste & Hygiene Compartment (WHC) for flush water, and for experiments on ISS. This paper summarizes water management activities on the ISS US Segment and provides a status of the performance and issues related to the operation of the Water Processor Assembly (WPA) and Urine Processor Assembly (UPA). This paper summarizes the on-orbit status as of June 2019, describes the technical challenges encountered and lessons learned over the past year.
Status of ISS Water Management and Recovery
(2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2023-07-16) Williamson, Jill; Luong, Hieu; Robinson, Kristina; Wilson, Jonathan P.
Water management on ISS is responsible for the provision of water to the crew for drinking water, food preparation, and hygiene, to the Oxygen Generation System (OGS) for oxygen production via electrolysis, Waste & Hygiene Compartment (WHC) and Toilet for flush water, and for experiments on ISS. This paper summarizes water management activities on the ISS US Segment as of March 2023 and provides a status of the performance and issues related to the operation of the Water Processor Assembly (WPA) and Urine Processor Assembly (UPA), and the Brine Processor Assembly (BPA).
Status of ISS Water Management and Recovery
(2024 International Conference on Environmnetal Systems, 2024-07-21) Williamson, Jill; Wilson, Jonathan; Luong, Hieu
Water management on ISS is responsible for the provision of water to the crew for drinking water, food preparation, and hygiene, to the Oxygen Generation System (OGS) for oxygen production via electrolysis, to the Waste & Hygiene Compartment (WHC) for flush water, and for experiments on ISS. This paper summarizes water management activities on the ISS US Segment as of March 2023 and provides a status of the performance and issues related to the operation of the Water Processor Assembly (WPA), Urine Processor Assembly (UPA), and Brine Processor Assembly (BPA).
Upgrades to the International Space Station Urine Processor Assembly
(2020 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2020-07-31) Williamson, Jill; Carter, Layne; Morris, Danielle; Hill, Jimmy; Caviglia, Colton
The ISS Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) began operations in November 2008. Though the UPA has successfully generated distillate from crew urine, several modifications and upgrades have been implemented to improve overall system performance throughout the years. Current and future upgrades to the UPA will continue to focus on improved system performance and reliability, focusing next on a flight demonstration experiment of a vacuum pump utilizing scroll pump technologies. The upgraded Distillation Assembly (DA), described in further detail in previous publications, will also be available for on-orbit integration within the year. The following paper discusses progress on the Purge Pump and Separator Assembly (PPSA) and concept considerations for future UPA upgrades.
Upgrades to the International Space Station Urine Processor Assembly
(50th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/12/2021) Williamson, Jill; Carter, Donald; Hill, James; Brown, Arthur
Since November 2008, the ISS Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) has successfully generated distillate from crew urine. Several rounds of modifications and upgrades have also been implemented to improve overall system performance throughout the years. The Distillation Assembly (DA) is the latest upgraded unit available, installed in September 2020. This unit has shown immediate performance improvements and redesign success. Most significant upgrades have been a redesigned drive train to eliminate belt slips, improved sealing to reduce leak paths and improve wear, and a redesigned liquid level sensor. The Purge Pump and Separator Assembly (PPSA) technology demonstration is the next available upgraded unit and has finished ground assembly and testing and is targeted for ISS delivery within the coming year. Most recent ground studies have identified areas to focus future UPA upgrade considerations with exploration missions in mind, specifically for better fault detection and isolations approaches as well as potential hardware redesigns to facilitate successful dormancy operations.
Upgrades to the International Space Station Urine Processor Assembly
(49th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2019-07-07) Williamson, Jill; Carter, Layne; Hill, Jimmy; Graves, Rex; Jones, Davey; Morris, Danielle
The ISS Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) began operations in November 2008. Though the UPA has successfully generated distillate from crew urine, several modifications and upgrades have been implemented to improve overall system performance throughout the years. Current and future upgrades to the UPA will continue to focus on improved system performance and reliability, focusing primarily on the Distillation Assembly and upgrades to the UPA vacuum pump. Work towards a flight demonstration experiment of a vacuum pump utilizing scroll pump technologies has also continued forward. The following paper discusses progress on these various concepts, including the implementation of a more reliable drive belt, improved methods for managing condensate in the stationary bowl of the Distillation Assembly, installation of improved centrifuge bearings, implementation of a liquid level sensor, and upgrades to the UPA vacuum pump.
Upgrades to the International Space Station Water Processor Assembly
(48th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2018-07-08) Kayatin, Matthew; Williamson, Jill; Nur, Mononita; Carter, Donald
The International Space Station Water Processor Assembly provides contaminant control and deionization functions to the Water Recovery System. The Water Processor Assembly presently utilizes sorbent-based Multifiltration Beds and a downstream Catalytic Reactor for these operations. Upgrades and process improvements are desired to improve performance, increase reliability, and decrease consumable resupply. To this end, reverse osmosis membrane separation technologies were evaluated to reduce influent contaminant loads, candidate additives to inhibit wastewater biofilm formation and growth were studied, and life stability testing was completed for a recently developed high-activity catalyst. The performance and applicability of these new technologies within the Water Processor Assembly, as well as their suitability for exploration missions, are discussed herein.
Upgrades to the ISS Urine Processor Assembly
(48th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2018-07-08) Carter, Donald; Williamson, Jill; Hill, Jimmy; Graves, Rex; Long, David; Clifton, Joshua
The ISS Water Recovery System (WRS) includes the Water Processor Assembly (WPA) and the Urine Processor Assembly (UPA). The WRS produces potable water from a combination of crew urine (first processed through the UPA), crew latent, and Sabatier product water. Though the WRS has performed well since operations began in November 2008, several modifications have been identified to improve the overall system performance. These modifications can reduce resupply and improve overall system reliability, which is beneficial for the ongoing ISS mission as well as for future NASA manned missions. The following paper discusses progress on various concepts for improving the reliability of the UPA, including the implementation of a more reliable drive belt, improved methods for managing condensate in the stationary bowl of the Distillation Assembly, installation of improved centrifuge bearings, implementation of a liquid level sensor, and evaluating upgrades to the UPA vacuum pump.