Drinking water for astronauts will be purified using an intelligent control system

The research team of the Institute of Fundamental Training and Technological Innovations of the St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation (SUAI) is developing a project of a small-sized installation for water purification by electric treatment. The use of the electric treatment method allows to reduce the weight and size parameters of water treatment equipment and to abandon a large number of chemical reagents. The development will make it possible to supply the crews of spacecraft with drinking water of proper quality.



Water in space is of key importance: today it is repeatedly used on the ISS, the operation of the space station and the production of oxygen depend on it. To develop an electric cleaning system, SUAI specialists used a large array of initial data including the composition of water and the requirements for treated water.

 

The development of circulating water supply systems is an issue whose solution is important not only for aerospace enterprises, but also for geological exploration expeditions, during the development of deposits, in shift settlements, in specially protected areas, and in emergency zones. Designing individual water treatment equipment requires serious research related to labor and time resources: equipping devices with intelligent control systems will make the electric treatment method more versatile, applicable to solving a wide range of water treatment and water treatment tasks, and will reduce the complexity of the process.



Work on the project is carried out within the framework of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia "Priority 2030" Federal Program.