Water Recovery and Management Subsystem for Space Station Freedom

The Water Recovery and Management (WRM) Subsystem on Space Station Freedom is part of the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS). The WRM provides water to the crew for drinking, food preparation, washing, and bathing. Water is also provided for equipment use such as electrolysis in order to generate crew metabolic oxygen. In addition, any excess water is made available for experiment uses. The primary function of the WRM is to collect waste water, process it to remove contaminants, store the recovered water for reuse, and finally, to distribute it to users within the habitable modules of the Space Station. The WRM is divided into two separate collection/distribution loops: one is used to recover condensate to potable standards for crew consumption, and the other is used to recover waste hygiene water back to hygiene standards for crew bathing and equipment use. Crew urine is collected and processed separately and then added to the waste collection side of the Hygiene Loop.

This paper will present an overview of the WRM Subsystem requirements and architecture to be used on Space Station Freedom, a simplified description of the baseline technologies implemented by the four processors selected to meet the WRM requirements, and a discussion of the issues arising from the inherent integration aspects of this subsystem.