BOSTON, July 18, 2008 — NASA Johnson Space Center has awarded a sole source contract to Skyhaven Systems, LLC to fabricate and deliver three high-pressure water electrolyzers. Based on prior efforts for NASA, Skyhaven Systems, LLC has successfully developed and delivered compact electrolyzers to NASA. For this new procurement, the three electrolyzers will each process 200 g of water per hour into separate streams of hydrogen and oxygen where the oxygen is pressurized to 3000 psig.

NASA is developing technologies to be able to support a sustained human presence on the Moon. Water electrolysis is a key component of current life support and power systems as well for the lunar outpost. NASA needs require a water electrolysis module that can function for varying applications and also that employs redundancy within the module. The oxygen storage requirements vary for lunar outpost applications; however, the driver for selecting a water electrolysis unit is output pressure and current plans call for high pressure oxygen storage for at least the space suits at minimum of 3000 psi. Another key requirement is to not drive the system mass to exceed the mass of the oxygen produced, so light weight electrolyzers are desired. Skyhaven Systems contract with NASA is to procure water electrolysis units that support high pressure operations but in a light weight package.