Patent — available for licensing
MiniTOCA Facilitates Automated Water Analysis
A NASA invention available to explore as a licensing opportunity.
About this technology
Overview
Seizing upon the success of the Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA) operating aboard the ISS, innovators working for NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) have revamped a potable water monitoring technology for long-duration crewed space missions into a smaller, lighter package called “MiniTOCA”. Total Organic Carbon (TOC) concentration can indicate the presence of organic compounds in a water sample such as that from decaying plants and bacteria along with hazardous chemicals. Currently, commercial TOC analyzers fail to meet the requirements set for deep space exploration typically due to gravity dependence, hazardous acid needed for inorganic carbon determination, and hazardous chemical or combustion reactor usage needed for oxidation. Ideally, exploration spacecraft instrumentation, including water monitoring technology, would not need resupply chemicals, would possess a low mass/volume archi-tecture, and would enable reliable online sensors to furnish real-time water quality data. The MiniTOCA reflects success in achieving these goals along with providing additional tunability to fit specific mission requirements including mass, volume, crew time, and resupply needs. The MiniTOCA is at a technology readiness level (TRL) 7 (System prototype demon-stration in an operational environment) and is now available for patent licensing. Please note that NASA does not manufacture products itself for commercial sale.