Watertown, MA, October 12, 2001 — Ionics, Incorporated, has supplied the International Space Station (ISS) with one of its water quality monitors: the Sievers® Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA).
As part of the space station's Crew Health Care System, this innovative device will protect the health of the astronauts by analyzing the quality of the drinking water. On April 19, 2001, Ionics' TOCA was launched aboard the Shuttle Orbiter Endeavour and transferred to the Zarya module of the ISS.
The TOCA analyzes drinking water to confirm that the pH, conductivity and concentration of organic chemicals in the water are within safe limits. The ISS crew
drinks water recovered from humidity condensation by a water processing system developed by Russia and located in the Zarya. This first TOCA is scheduled for a six-month mission on the ISS, and a second TOCA will be launched later in 2001 to replace it.
Ionics' TOCA is the culmination of 11 years of development, during which Ionics' Instrument Business Group space-hardened its patented technology for measurement of total organic carbon. In 1997, an earlier version of the TOCA was tested in a flight experiment on the Atlantis, while it was docked at the Russian space station Mir. That experiment demonstrated that Ionics' technology operated successfully in the micro- gravity of space. Both the flight experiment and ISS versions of the TOCA were developed under contract to Wyle Life Sciences, NASA's prime contractor for the Crew Health Care System.
About Ionics Incorporated
Ionics is a global separations technology company involved in the manufacture and sale of membranes, equipment and own and operate services for the purification, disinfection, concentration, treatment and analysis of water, wastewater and ultrapure water. Over a period of more than 50 years, Ionics has built more desalination plants than any company in the world. Ionics has been a pioneer in purified water with its worldwide five-gallon brand, Aqua Cool® Pure Bottled Water. For more information about Ionics, we invite you to visit our website at www.ionics.com.
