Development of the Integrated Water Recovery Assembly (IRA) for Recycling Habitation Wastewater

Paragon's commercialization strategy for the development and incorporation of IRA into NASA's exploration-class habitats is summarized as follows: Technical Maturation - Building upon the completed Phase I where the functional integration of IRA's bioregenerative and distillation subsystems has been successfully demonstrated, we must add gas phase trace contaminant removal functionality and demonstrate the integrated operation of a functional prototype. The Phase II effort must mature IRA and deliver a full-scale functional prototype that quantifies performance and advantages over competing technologies. Market Development - The primary near-term market for IRA is NASA's Human Spaceflight program. Paragon actively engages with NASA through funded technology development efforts such as proposed here, flight hardware production contracts to Lockheed Martin (Orion) and Boeing (CST-100), and through active participation of industry conferences and workshops. We believe the most promising near-term opportunity to inject IRA into an operational systems is to demonstrate a Phase III system in a NASA long-duration ground test bed in the 2019 timeframe. Long-duration demonstration testing would pave the way for IRA to be integrated with the exploration habitats that will ultimately be developed for NASA.

Potential Non-NASA aerospace customers include Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital-ATK, Bigelow, & SpaceX. It is also possible that commercial entities like Inspiration Mars, Golden Spike, or Mars One could come through with significant investment funds for the maturation of their commercial exploration plans. Paragon is well positioned to incorporate IRA into their technical solutions as we have recent and ongoing work with entities such as this. In addition to aerospace applications, development of a highly regenerative and simple wastewater recycling system has numerous terrestrial applications, including disaster relief, remote military base support, and the deployment of green building hygiene water recycling systems. Paragon has the experience and technical capabilities and skills to mature IRA to flight in partnership with TTU and to market it for aerospace and terrestrial applications. We recognize it is essential to foster and develop business relations with customers, suppliers, and key subcontractors. To that end, we continue to develop a solid supplier base and have established working relationships with Research Institutions such as TTU that bring with them critical skills and capabilities of their own More »