10 March 2014 – QinetiQ Space has signed a €1.1m contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) for the development of a ground prototype water treatment unit to recycle urine and waste water for use in space.

The prototype will be used to develop a system that will be used in future space missions to treat water for re-use by astronauts to wash, or to be purified further to drinking water. The ground prototype and testing will ensure the future system works successfully in space, with a design that has to take into account the lack of gravity, the launch and the life expectancy of the components in different environments.

Along with the prototype development and preliminary design, QinetiQ will provide project coordination with a consortium that includes NTE, who will be carrying out requirements analysis, VITO, who will work on membrane technology, and UGent who are responsible for the urine related subsystem and overall life testing.

Sanjay Razdan, Managing Director New Technologies QinetiQ plc, said; “Water is obviously essential for long duration space missions.  For a space mission with six crew members it is estimated that they have a water consumption of 166 litres per day so the development of an efficient, reliable and safe water treatment system that can re-use water is essential. We are delighted to be developing a prototype unit that will enable this to be the case for future space missions.”