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Silver biocide offers a potential advantage over iodine, the current state-of-the-art in US spacecraft disinfection technology, in that silver can be safely consumed by the crew. As such, silver may reduce the overall complexity and mass of future spacecraft potable water systems, particularly those used to support long duration missions. A primary technology gap identified for the use of silver biocide is one of material compatibility. Wetted materials of construction are required to be selected such that silver ion concentrations can be maintained at biocidally effective levels.

Microorganisms will be an integral part of biologically based waste processing systems used for water purification or nutrient recycling on space flights. Establishment of these systems with a defined group of microorganisms will provide a standardized means for conferring specific properties to the system. The purpose of this study was to develop microbial inocula (a defined, constructed community and an undefined community) for initiation of plant-based graywater waste processing systems. To this end, small-subunit 16S rDNA sequence analysis was used to describe the population composition of microbial communities from a plant-based graywater waste treatment system and from an industrial wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The clonal library of organisms from the graywater-degrading rhizosphere community suggested that members of the Cytophagales and Proteobacteria phylogenetic groups dominated. The clonal library of organisms from industrial WWTP was taxonomically more diverse.