The waste that they collect on spacecraft, including the astronauts’ own excrement, will have an unusual, innovative and ecological use: being converted into fuel for spacecraft that travel from the Moon back to Earth . The new system has been developed by the Agricultural and Biological Engineering unit of the University of Florida (USA).
Building an inhabited center on the surface of the Moon between 2019 and 2014 is one of NASA’s goals, and installing a garbage dump on the Moon was not an option . To reduce the weight of spacecraft returning to Earth, finding a solution for the waste generated was crucial. Currently, all of them are stored in containers attached to space vehicles that burn on their return through the Earth’s atmosphere. Now, thanks to this new method, future missions will use these excrements as fuel to return home killing two birds with one stone .
“We have tried to find out how much methane can be produced from food scraps, food packaging and human excrement. Methane can be used as rocket fuel, and enough can be produced when returning from the moon, ”explains Pullammanappallil.
Scientists have managed to chemically compact the waste by obtaining methane from it, calculating that a team could produce up to 290 liters of methane per crew each day . The system uses an anaerobic digester that kills pathogens in human excrement and produces biogas.
But this system could also be applied at the ground level to generate electricity, heating or for public transport : “It could be used on campus or in the city, or anywhere, to convert waste into fuel”, explains Pratap Pullammanappallil, leader from the study to the journal Advances in Space Research .
