NASA has awarded Paragon a contract for the full scale development of its patented Ionomer-membrane Water Processor (IWP) System to be demonstrated on the International Space Station (ISS) in about 19 months. Paragon’s IWP will provide the platform for up to 98 percent water recovery in future deep space exploration missions with its initial application planned for installation on the International Space Station (ISS). This contract follows a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase III contract awarded by NASA to Paragon earlier this year for IWP development.
“We are looking forward to increasing the ISS water cycle closure thereby significantly reducing expensive water deliveries from Earth and saving valuable taxpayer dollars.” said Grant Anderson, Paragon President and CEO. “NASA’s SBIR investment has made this next step possible and we are excited to see the IWP technology fully developed to fulfill needs of current and future space programs. ”
“This program will provide high volume water recovery for places like the ISS, missions to Mars, or other deep space missions that must operate independent of Earth’s resources,” said Laura Kelsey, IWP Program Manager.
Paragon will follow up this work with operational systems for many future missions that NASA and the private sector have in their plans. Paragon is actively working with other contractors that are preparing to supply the future habitats for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and long-duration missions.
IWP has several applications on Earth including water recovery and purification of briny water such as out of oil wells, fracking water, and from other industrial processes.
Paragon Space Development Corporation® is a premier provider of environmental control components and systems for extreme and hazardous environments.
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