Progress and Direction of the Forward Osmosis-Cargo Transfer Bag Concept for 2013

The Forward Osmosis - Cargo Transfer Bag (FO-CTB) is a modified cargo transfer bag (CTB) with an embedded functional water treatment element, based on a forward osmosis (FO) membrane. CTBs are used to deliver small items and food supplies to orbit in the current international human space flight logistics system and are a standardized expendable logistics item at this time. The FO-CTB can be used as a platform to allow a water treatment experiment to be integrated into cargo delivery logistics, and to be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) in a seamless fashion. Current progress on this concept’s development conveyed here primarily relates to component level testing, integrated architectural model demonstrations, and engineering design selection processes for the development of the flight project proposal. This proposed flight experiment as well as follow-on execution of the project will demonstrate the synergy of forward osmosis water treatment and passive radiation shielding increase for inclusion in small scale (emergency and/or logistics-based building block) soft product elements for near term space logistics.Perhaps more importantly, however, the experiment itself will demonstrate the practicality and process necessary for using the FO-CTB as a small life-support platform achieving a technological milestone for future water-wall based space habitats.