Mini Total Organic Carbon Analyzer, Year 1 (miniTOCA)

The objective of this development is to create a prototype hand-held, 1 to 2 liter size battery-powered Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA).#The majority of missions beyond LEO require that all waste water sources on spacecraft be recycled into drinking water and verified clean to protect crew health. Total Organic Carbon (TOC) is the sum of the carbon content of all organic contaminants in the water, and measuring TOC is a key method to monitor over all water quality, and is useful for tracking water processor system performance. If the TOC in the recycled water is kept low (< 1 part per million-ppm), the need to measure specific organic compounds is diminished if not eliminated entirely. This project will develop a greatly simplified and miniaturized TOCA vs. the current state of the art (locker sized, 40 kg). The current state of the art TOCA is fine for International Space Station, but Exploration missions cannot accomodate the mass, volume and power required. The goal of the project therefore is to reduce the mass, volume and power by more than 90%.#By miniaturizing the system, the required volume of water for analysis also diminishes. The MiniTOCA is a vital tool that will help enable exploration of space.#MiniTOCA project seeks to miniaturize and drastically simplify the TOCA water quality monitor to cut consumables, reduce power by 90% and reduce mass- volume footprint by 95%.