Page 105 - International Space Station Benefits for Humanity, 3rd edition.

B4H 3rd Edition

Using the microbial analysis
Testing—and technology developed for ESA,
Verifying—the Waters
Founded by researchers Bioclear can identify the presence of
behind NASA’s Microbial a bacterial threat in water or soil and
Scientific
Economic
Water Analysis Kit (part of the space station’s estimate the power of that threat.
Valuation
Valuation
environmental control systems), mWater is a
non-profit venture focused on providing
low-cost test kits and monitoring software in
ECONOMIC
SCIENTIFIC
support of the global Water and Sanitation for
VALUATION
VALUATION
Health (WASH) initiative. Currently, mWater is microbes to remove air pollutants offer a solution;
the largest WASH access database on the however, they pose risks. Harmful bacteria could
planet. Based on space station technology, grow on the filters and cause damage to equipment
the mWater testing kit costs $10 and uses and systems on the space station.
efficient, mobile techniques to test for The ISS has been a home to humans for more than
contamination in drinking water sources. 15 years. Keeping the space station air clean and
The accompanying mobile applications safe can be a challenge since contaminants build
receive more than 70,000 submissions per up over time. Astronauts on long missions are
month, and enable the public to record particularly susceptible to microbial infections due to
water quality and map safe water sources. their weakened immune systems. Bioclear, a Dutch
company specializing in soil pollution, teamed with ESA
to develop an air filter for the ISS that uses bacteria to
Human Earth Observation Innovative Global Economic
B4H 3rd Edition
convert contaminants into carbon dioxide and water for
Health and Disaster Technology Education Development
Response reuse. The company developed a screening technique
of Space
Feighery’s experience writing crew procedures at NASA
influenced the design of the app, which is task-oriented
and designed to require very little training beyond
following the procedure. In the future, the mWater team
plans to introduce checklists for each type of water test New Filtering
to further improve ease of use and reduce the training Technology
needed to perform field testing. “Sweats the
Test results upload to the cloud-based global water Small Stuff”
database using a phone’s Global Positioning System A partnership between the European Space
Economic
Scientific
to identify the exact location of the water source. Agency and Bioclear resulted in a new biological
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Each location gets a unique and permanent numeric filter and DNA screening technology being
identifier for reference by those who visit the global commercialized through a spin-off company,
water source map for updates. Users can add new SCIENTIFIC ECONOMIC
VALUATION
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water location points and input or update test results, Bioclear Microbial Analysis (BMA). BMA reported
thereby working within the open source sharing assets greater than $500,000 and seven
approach for the health of the community. employees at the end of 2017. BMA was created
to focus on the use of this filtering and screening
technology in terrestrial applications, including
Commercial Applications from the identification of microbial influenced corrosion
Microbial Filtration in Space (MIC). The global market price to prevent MIC
is $7 billion.
Opening a window for a breath of fresh air is not an
option in space, and cleaning agents can become
a contaminant themselves. Biological filters that use

Human Earth Observation Innovative Global Economic
Health and Disaster Technology Education Development
Response 91 of Space