Water Management Requirements for Animal and Plant Maintenance on the Space Station

Long-duration Space Station experiments that use animals and plants as test specimens will require increased automation and advanced technologies for water management in order to free scientist-astronauts from routine but time-consuming housekeeping tasks. The three areas that have been identified as requiring water management and that are discussed are 1) drinking water and humidity condensate of the animals, 2) nutrient solution and transpired water of the plants, and 3) habitat cleaning methods. Automation potential, technology assessment, crew time savings, and resupply penalties are also discussed.