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Potable and hygiene water availability is a critical requirement for long-duration manned space missions. Frequent water quality testing helps to ensure astronaut health by providing needed feedback on the effectiveness of on-board water purification units. One of the most basic and broad-spectrum indicators of contamination is organic carbon concentration. To meet the need for water quality feedback on the International Space Station (ISS), as well as on planned missions to Luna and Mars, Lynntech is developing a mesofluidic total organic carbon analyzer (TOCA) through the NASA SBIR program. The unit has been designed to operate in the demanding environment of a long-duration manned space mission and addresses the issues of microgravity operation, an operating lifetime of 5 years, low power consumption, simple user interface, robust architecture, and inherent safety.

Monitoring the quality of astronaut potable and hygiene water is one of the highest priorities of a regenerative life support system for manned space missions to the ISS, Moon, Mars, and other remote locations. Real-time monitoring allows analysis of water processing from wastewater to potable water and would enable the rapid diagnosis and correction of a processing failure if a water-related health issue were to arise. Among detectors used to monitor recycled water quality, a total organic carbon (TOC) instrument or its functional equivalent should be used to assess the organic contaminant level. Through the NASA Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program, Lynntech has developed a novel, mesofluidic Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA) for real-time monitoring of water quality. It has been designed for an operational lifetime of 5 years with no maintenance required and no need to supply reagents or water.