NASA explores technologies to minimize waste on long-term flights

The SpaceX The CRS-13 Dragon cargo ship is attached to the Harmony module of the International Space Station after its arrival on December 17, 2017. Photo: NASA [19659002] In all, as many as 12,000 kilograms of freight are delivered to the station each year. As this can create serious storage problems on the craft, crew members pay close attention to waste management by saving resources, reusing materials and recycling water. and the air. However, despite all these efforts, about two kilos of garbage accumulate, leaving them no choice but to squeeze them into garbage bags and send them to a refueling vehicle on the go [19659002] or burns in the atmosphere to solve the problem of garbage management for those who are on the ISS. But it is also a trap. The temporary elimination method works for the space station because it relies on a low Earth orbit, but if the mission is towards the Moon or towards a distant planet like Mars, the installation of a cargo ship does will not be available.

In such cases the waste accumulated during a long journey would not only consume a valuable piece on the spacecraft, but would also create physical and biological problems for those aboard. The agency also noted that garbage storage even affects the ability to extract and recycle useful resources for the benefit of the mission.

That's exactly why she calls private companies and industry experts to design systems capable of managing waste. a mission in the deep space. As part of Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships or NextSTEP-2, the agency wants companies to demonstrate technologies and prototypes for compaction and waste processing.

The proposed system, as described by NASA, should be able to reduce the size of waste, safely dispose of biological and physical hazards, and extract entrapped resources that could be recycled in the future.

Once a few proposals have been selected by the agency, companies will have to develop their conceptual system. In the first phase, the system will be developed and tested in ground demonstrations and laboratory experiments. NASA said companies will be allowed to use some of its waste management technologies, such as the Heat Melt Compactor and trash to gas technology for developing their systems. After that, the most promising system will be transformed into a unit capable of flying and transported to the ISS around 2022.