Space Mission Waste Conversion Experiments at the Zero Gravity Facility

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dc.creatorMeier, Anne
dc.creatorShah, Malay
dc.creatorToro Medina, Jaime
dc.creatorRinderknecht, David
dc.creatorPitts, Ray
dc.date.accessioned2020-07-24T14:20:08Z
dc.date.available2020-07-24T14:20:08Z
dc.date.issued2020-07-31
dc.descriptionAnne Meier, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), US
dc.descriptionMalay Shah, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), US
dc.descriptionJaime Toro Medina, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), US
dc.descriptionDavid Rinderknecht, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), US
dc.descriptionRay Pitts, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), US
dc.descriptionICES304: Physio-Chemical Life Support- Waste Management Systems- Technology and Process Development
dc.descriptionThe proceedings for the 2020 International Conference on Environmental Systems were published from July 31, 2020. The technical papers were not presented in person due to the inability to hold the event as scheduled in Lisbon, Portugal because of the COVID-19 global pandemic.en_US
dc.description.abstractHumans are required to increase sustainability and efficiency on missions, which can be done in part by effectively managing logistical waste. Repurposed waste can be safely vented in the form of an inert gas off of a spacecraft, or useful material can be recovered, such as syngas (propellant), air, water, raw material for construction and repair feedstocks or replacement parts. The NASA Orbital Syngas / Commodity Augmentation Reactor (OSCAR) project has completed a 2 and 5 second microgravity test campaign at the Glenn Research Center Drop Tower and Zero Gravity Facility to demonstrate combustion and steam reforming for waste to gas technologies. The project continues to investigate thermochemical conversion of logistical space mission trash to a gas for venting or reuse. This paper discusses the project advancements since the 2 second Drop Tower testing in 2018 and provides updated results from the 5 second Zero Gravity Facility experimentation in 2019. Trash injection, inlet reaction gas flow direction, heat transfer, ignition, combustion and mixed waste streams in a microgravity environment are investigated. Benchtop tests were performed to highlight the behavioral discrepancies of OSCAR within gravity and microgravity environments, which was the primary purpose of this work. Overall results are used to decide the appropriate method to model the system, help guide the design of how air, or other oxidant, should be introduced into the hearth zone for optimum material conversion, and assist in the next design phase for a suborbital flight demonstration. The work in this report presents the 5 second microgravity test campaign data with gravity data for space mission trash items, reactor design iterations, preheat temperature and trash ignition conditions.
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.otherICES_2020_228
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/2346/86288
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisher2020 International Conference on Environmental Systems
dc.subjectTrash to gas
dc.subjectWaste conversion
dc.subjectCombustion
dc.subjectMicrogravity
dc.subjectZero Gravity Facility
dc.titleSpace Mission Waste Conversion Experiments at the Zero Gravity Facility
dc.typePresentation

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