I am alarmingly attuned to the smell of fresh curry. I believe it's an evolutionary adaptation.

During the two years I worked on the shuttle program, the biggest problem I found was that United Space Alliance (USA), the Boeing-Lockheed conglomerate tasked with keeping the shuttle flying, has converted the program into nothing but a revenue stream, and resisted all change. We were attempting to design a better launch-control software system, and the existing employees fought us at every step, because the new system would invalidate decades of their archaic experience. They were reluctant to share details of the current system, every requirement was like pulling teeth, and in the process we discovered that they did not know the system very well at all, were just following scripted operations manuals. Engineering knowledge and innovation has left the shuttle program DECADES ago, leading to the decay of human spaceflight as a whole. When USA needed to fill a slot, they would just move a person from another position, regardless of their qualifications - many of the "software engineers" they assigned to work with us had NO software knowledge at all, were there just to provide a warm body and allow USA to bill more hours.

Unfortunately, that is rarely taken into account. I got to experience this in a large-company-that-shall-not-be-named, where a large SW maintenance task was offshored. The ONLY factor taken into consideration by the management was the $/hr cost. However, it was us, the shell of the department left behind, the had to suffer the 'substantial inefficiencies' as we struggled to deliver the often substandard product to customers.

Depending on the efficiency of the mechanism, the resulting waste stream of concentrated brine would be a problem. 2000 cubic meters of fresh water per day could mean a large kill zone for marine life in the area immediately surrounding the waste site.

This would also affect how these installations would scale. If multiple units are placed in close proximity, each would act to increase the salinity of the intake water of the others, making the desalinization less efficient (viable?). There is much more than testing in tank before we get to a workable, low energy fresh water solution. Seems like a good first step, though.