Issued patent
Habitat Water Wall for Water, Solids, and Atmosphere Recycle and Reuse
An issued NASA patent from the Technology Transfer catalog.
About this technology
Overview
NASA has created a unique approach to water, solids, and atmosphere recycle and reuse. The membrane water wall concept includes a system for membrane-based water, solids, and air treatment functions that is embedded into the walls of inflatable or rigid habitat structures. It provides novel and potentially game changing mass reuse and structural advantages over current mechanical life support hardware. It also provides radiation protection, building materials and structural elements. This approach potentially reduces the cost of human space flight by replacing the mass, power, and volume of conventional life support hardware. It removes air, water, and waste treatment hardware from the usable habitat volume. Also, it provides structural elements to strengthen the habitat shell, provide thermal control, and provide radiation shielding.