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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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11 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2010

Creating Methane from Plastic: Recycling at a Lunar Outpost

The high cost of re-supply from Earth demands resources to be utilized to the fullest extent for exploration missions. The ability to refuel on the lunar surface would reduce the vehicle mass during launch and provide excess payload capability. Recycling is a key technology that maximizes the available resources by converting waste products into useful commodities. One example of this is to convert crew member waste such as plastic packaging, food scraps, and human waste into fuel. This process thermally degrades plastic in the presence of oxygen producing CO2 and CO. The CO2 and CO are then reacted with hydrogen over catalyst (Sabatier reaction) producing methane. An end-to-end laboratory-scale system has been designed and built to produce methane from plastic, in this case polyethylene. This first generation system yields 12-16% CH4 by weight of plastic used.

Santiago-Maldonado, Edgardo↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Managing spacecraft waste

Waste is a universal problem, on Earth, in spacecraft, and for any closed ecological system. Waste must be processed and is often recycled to recover resources. Many different approaches and technologies are used. Spacecraft waste is derived from the spacecraft logistics supplies, the materials provided for use by the crew. The composition of spacecraft logistics and the resulting waste depend on the mission and its duration and use of recycling. Spacecraft waste is a more serious problem on long duration missions because of the large logistics supplies consumed and the difficulty of storing or disposing of waste. The quantity and composition of waste can vary and may require flexible management. Most missions will produce about two kilograms per crewmember per day of trash, consisting of food waste, plastic, paper, packaging, hygiene wipes and many other supplies used and discarded by the crew. The waste is bulky, messy and difficult to store since the wet waste can decompose and produce odors and an accumulation of pathogenic bacteria. Many different methods have been proposed for managing spacecraft waste.

Harry W Jones↗
NASA NTRS2010

Creating Methane from Plastics: Recycling at a Lunar Outpost

The high cost of re-supply from Earth demands resources to be utilized to the fullest extent for exploration missions. Recycling is a key technology that maximizes the available resources by converting waste products into useful commodities. One example of this is to convert crew member waste such as plastic packaging, food scraps, and human waste, into fuel. The ability to refuel on the lunar surface would reduce the vehicle mass during launch and provide excess payload capability. The goal of this project is to determine the feasibility of recycling waste into methane on the lunar outpost by performing engineering assessments and lab demonstrations of the technology. The first goal of the project was to determine how recycling could influence lunar exploration. Table I shows an estimation of the typical dried waste stream generated each day for a crew of four. Packaging waste accounts for nearly 86% of the dry waste stream and is a significant source of carbon on the lunar surface. This is important because methane (CH4) can be used as fuel and no other source of carbon is available on the lunar surface. With the initial assessment indicating there is sufficient resources in the waste stream to provide refueling capabilities, the project was designed to examine the conversion of plastics into methane.

Captain, Janine↗
NASA NTRS2004

Compaction of Space Mission Wastes

The current solid waste management system employed on the International Space Station (ISS) consists of compaction, storage, and disposal. Wastes such plastic food packaging and trash are compacted manually and wrapped in duct tape footballs by the astronauts. Much of the waste is simply loaded either into the empty Russian Progress vehicle for destruction on reentry or into Shuttle for return to Earth. This manual method is wasteful of crew time and does not transition well to far term missions. Different wastes onboard spacecraft vary considerably in their characteristics and in the appropriate method of management. In advanced life support systems for far term missions, recovery of resources such as water from the wastes becomes important. However waste such as plastic food packaging, which constitutes a large fraction of solid waste (roughly 21% on ISS, more on long duration missions), contains minimal recoverable resource. The appropriate management of plastic waste is waste stabilization and volume minimization rather than resource recovery. This paper describes work that has begun at Ames Research Center on development of a heat melt compactor that can be used on near term and future missions, that can minimize crew interaction, and that can handle wastes with a significant plastic composition. The heat melt compactor takes advantage of the low melting point of plastics to compact plastic materials using a combination of heat and pressure. The US Navy has demonstrated successful development of a similar unit for shipboard application. Ames is building upon the basic approach demonstrated by the Navy to develop an advanced heat melt type compactor for space mission type wastes.

Fisher, John↗
NASA NTRS2011

Characterization of Volume F Trash from the Three FY11 STS Missions: Trash Weights and Categorization and Microbial Characterization

The project reported here provides microbial characterization support to the Waste Management Systems (WMS) element of NASA's Life Support and Habitation Systems (LSHS) program. Conventional microbiological methods were used to detect and enumerate microorganisms in STS Volume F Compartment trash for three shuttle missions: STS 133, 134, and 135. This trash was usually made available within 2 days of landing at KSC. The Volume F bag was weighed, opened and the contents were cataloged and placed into categories: personal hygiene items - inclUding EVA maximum absorbent garments (MAGs) and Elbow packs (daily toilet wipes, etc), drink containers, food waste (and containers), office waste (paper), and packaging materials - plastic film and duct tape. The average wet trash generation rate for the three STS missions was 0.362 % 0.157 kgwet crew 1 d-1 . This was considerably lower and more variable than the average rate for 4 STS missions reported for FY10. Trash subtotals by category: personal hygiene wastes, 56%; drink items, 11 %; food wastes, 18%; office waste, 3%; and plastic film, 12%. These wastes have an abundance of easily biodegraded compounds that can support the growth of microorganisms. Microbial characterization of trash showed that large numbers of bacteria and fungi have taken advantage of this readily available nutrient source to proliferate. Exterior and interior surfaces of plastic film bags containing trash were sampled and counts of cultivatable microbes were generally low and mostly occurred on trash bundles within the exterior trash bags. Personal hygiene wastes, drink containers, and food wastes and packaging all contained high levels of, mostly, aerobic heterotrophic bacteria and lower levels of yeasts and molds. Isolates from plate count media were obtained and identified .and were mostly aerobic heterotrophs with some facultative anaerobes. These are usually considered common environmental isolates on Earth. However, several pathogens were also isolated: Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.

Strayer, Richard F.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Industrial plastics waste: Identification and segregation

Throwaway plastic products, mainly packaging, are inundating our landfills and incinerators. Most are ethenic thermoplastics, which can be recycled as new products or fossil-fuels. Lab experiments are described, involving destructive and non-destructive tests for identifying and using plastics. The burn-test, with simple apparatus and familiar samples, is recommended as quick, cheap and effective.

Widener, Edward L.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Characterization of Volume F Trash from Four Recent STS Missions: Microbial Occurrence, Numbers, and Identifications

The fate of space-generated solid wastes, including trash, for future missions is under consideration by NASA. Several potential treatment options are under active technology development. Potential fates for space-generated solid wastes: Storage without treatment; storage after treatment(s) including volume reduction, water recovery, sterilization, and recovery plus recycling of waste materials. For this study, a microbial characterization was made on trash returned from four recent STS missions. The material analyzed were 'Volume F' trash and other bags of accompanying trash. This is the second of two submitted papers on these wastes. This first one covered trash content, weight and water content. Upon receipt, usually within 2 days of landing, trash contents were catalogued and placed into categories: drink containers, food waste, personal hygiene items, and packaging materials, i.e., plastic film and duct tape. Microbial counts were obtained with cultivatable counts on agar media and direct counts using Acridine Orange fluorescent stain (AODC). Trash bag surfaces, 25 square cm , were also sampled. Direct counts were approximately 1 x 10(exp 6) microbes/square cm and cultivatable counts ranged from 1 x 10 to 1 X 10(exp 4) microbes/ square cm-2. Aerobic microbes, aerobic sporeformers, and yeasts plus molds were common for all four missions. Waste items from each category were placed into sterile ziplock bags and 1.5 L sterile DI water added. These were then dispersed by hand shaking for 2 min. prior to inoculation of count media or determining AODC. In general, cultivatable microbes were found in drinks, food wastes, and personal hygiene items. Direct counts were usually higher than cultivatable counts. Some pathogens were found: Staphylococcus auerus, Escherichia coli (fecal wastes). Count ranges: drink pouches - AODC 2 x 10(exp 6) to 1 X 10(exp 8) g(sub fw) (exp -1); cultivatable counts variable between missions; food wastes: Direct counts were close to aerobic plate counts. Counts ranged from 10(exp 6) to 10(exp 9) per g(sub fw). Identities of isolates from cultivation media were obtained using a Biolog Microbial ID System or microSEQ molecular ID methodology using an ABI3130 gene analyzer.

Strayer, Richard F.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Performances of the Heat Melt Compactor System in Various Operational Scenarios

The Heat Melt Compactor (HMC) system has been developed to manage the waste generated on board spacecraft during long-duration missions. The quantity and composition of spacecraft trash depends upon the mission and can have a very high daily variability. This requires a flexible system able to manage extreme waste scenarios. Most missions will generate on average about one kilograms of trash per astronaut per day, derived mainly from the spacecraft logistics supplies and consisting of clothing, food & beverage residues, packaging, paper, plastic, hygiene wipes, and many other personal or scientific items used and discarded by the crew. Uncontained and unprocessed waste is a health hazard and a habitat storage problem. However, trash also contains valuable resources such as water. HMC is designed to provide volume reduction, microbial safening and stabilization, water recovery, and radiation shielding material. The final byproduct generated by HMC is a sterilized tile with the consistency of hard plastic that can be safely handled, easily stored, and used for radiation protection. This paper provides the summary of an extensive campaign of testing performed using the HMC system to simulate different nominal and extreme operational scenarios and to generate the data necessary to finalize requirements for proto-flight hardware to be deployed to an International Space Station (ISS) EXPRESS Rack.

HMC↗
NASA NTRS2008

Production of Methane and Water from Crew Plastic Waste

Recycling is a technology that will be key to creating a self sustaining lunar outpost. The plastics used for food packaging provide a source of material that could be recycled to produce water and methane. The recycling of these plastics will require some additional resources that will affect the initial estimate of starting materials that will have to be transported from earth, mainly oxygen, energy and mass. These requirements will vary depending on the recycling conditions. The degredation products of these plastics will vary under different atmospheric conditions. An estimate of the the production rate of methane and water using typical ISRU processes along with the plastic recycling will be presented.

Captain, Janine↗
NASA NTRS2011

Characterization of Volume F Trash from Four Recent STS Missions: Weights, Categorization, Water Content

The fate of space-generated solid wastes, including trash, for future missions is under consideration by NASA. Several potential treatment options are under consideration and active technology development. Potential fates for space-generated solid wastes are: Storage without treatment; storage after treatment(s) including volume reduction, water recovery, sterilization, and recovery plus recycling of waste materials. Recycling might be important for partial or full closure scenarios because of the prohibitive costs associated with resupply of consumable materials. For this study, we determined the composition of trash returned from four recent STS missions. The trash material was 'Volume F' trash and other trash, in large zip-lock bags, that accompanied the Volume F trash. This is the first of two submitted papers on these wastes. This one will cover trash content, weight and water content. The other will report on the microbial Characterization of this trash. STS trash was usually made available within 2 days of landing at KSC. The Volume F bag was weighed, opened and the contents were catalogued and placed into one of the following categories: food waste (and containers), drink containers, personal hygiene items - including EVA maximum absorbent garments (MAGs)and Elbow packs (daily toilet wipes, etc), paper, and packaging materials - plastic firm and duct tape. Trash generation rates for the four STS missions: Total wet trash was 0.602 plus or minus 0.089 kg(sub wet) crew(sup -1) d(sup -1) containing about 25% water at 0.154 plus or minus 0.030 kg(sub water) crew(sup -1) d(sup -1) (avg plus or minus stdev). Cataloguing by category: personal hygiene wastes accounted for 50% of the total trash and 69% of the total water for the four missions; drink items were 16% of total weight and 16% water; food wastes were 22% of total weight and 15% of the water; office waste and plastic film were 2% and 11% of the total waste and did not contain any water. The results can be used by NASA to determine requirements and criteria for Waste Management Systems on future missions.

Strayer, Richard F.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Food Packaging Materials

The photos show a few of the food products packaged in Alure, a metallized plastic material developed and manufactured by St. Regis Paper Company's Flexible Packaging Division, Dallas, Texas. The material incorporates a metallized film originally developed for space applications. Among the suppliers of the film to St. Regis is King-Seeley Thermos Company, Winchester, Ma'ssachusetts. Initially used by NASA as a signal-bouncing reflective coating for the Echo 1 communications satellite, the film was developed by a company later absorbed by King-Seeley. The metallized film was also used as insulating material for components of a number of other spacecraft. St. Regis developed Alure to meet a multiple packaging material need: good eye appeal, product protection for long periods and the ability to be used successfully on a wide variety of food packaging equipment. When the cost of aluminum foil skyrocketed, packagers sought substitute metallized materials but experiments with a number of them uncovered problems; some were too expensive, some did not adequately protect the product, some were difficult for the machinery to handle. Alure offers a solution. St. Regis created Alure by sandwiching the metallized film between layers of plastics. The resulting laminated metallized material has the superior eye appeal of foil but is less expensive and more easily machined. Alure effectively blocks out light, moisture and oxygen and therefore gives the packaged food long shelf life. A major packaging firm conducted its own tests of the material and confirmed the advantages of machinability and shelf life, adding that it runs faster on machines than materials used in the past and it decreases product waste; the net effect is increased productivity.

Source record↗