Assessment of the viral removal capability of the International Space Station Water Recovery and Management system

The development of the International Space Station (ISS) Water Reclamation and Management (WRM) system has been supported through integrated testing at NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Assessment of the viral removal capabilities of the ISS water processor was performed as part of the hardware performance evaluation. For the Viral Challenge Test, a known concentration of viruses was mixed with human-generated wastewater and reclaimed using the ISS Water Processor. The composition and concentrations of the different wastewaters used for this test represented the combination of contaminants expected to be found in the wastewater that will be collected and recycled on board the ISS. The results from the Viral Challenge Test clearly showed that the ISS WRM has the capacity to reduce the concentration of viruses in the wastewater by 12 log10 units.