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This research is intended to provide contamination and ecosynthesis researchers with an engineering development tool for understanding the productivity of metabolically active low temperature brine habitats as potential sites for bacterial colonization by forward contaminating Earth organisms. The specific extremophile microbial culturing conditions targeted were psychrophilic (low temperature), halophilic (high salt), high ambient sulfur, and anaerobic. These low temperature or freezing point suppressed brine habitats with high ambient sulfur concentrations have been suggested as potential subsurface water resources on both Mars and Europa, and may be common among potentially viable extant water environments in the outer solar system.

For wastewater treatment applications, membrane processes are known to provide excellent treatment but are subject to failure due to membrane fouling. The Direct Osmotic Concentration (DOC) system evaluated in this study provides a membrane based primary treatment process capable of overcoming this problem. A full scale test apparatus containing full scale test module membrane cells has been developed and has undergone preliminary testing that provides a basis for comparison with other primary water recycle process concepts. This study confirms and extends the initial testing of this hardware and determines the required improvements to the existing test mo dules. These improvements, in addition to future testing, are intended to complete the validation of the concept and mature the hardware to the point that human rated test equipment design and development can be based directly on the test module derived data.

Direct osmotic concentration (DOC) is a membrane treatment process for reclamation of space craft wastewater. It incorporates a novel system architecture that includes a forward osmosis (FO) and reverse osmosis (RO) subsystem for hygiene (gray) water, and a membrane distillation subsystem for the treatment of urine and humidity condensate. The products of these subsystems are combined and then post-treated by a catalytic oxidation subsystem. This paper documents progress made during the second year of a three year Rapid Technology Development Team (RTDT) effort.