What is NASA's Heat Melt Compactor?

Friday, August 17, 2018 - 09:00 in Astronomy & Space

Dealing with trash is a challenge wherever people work and live, and space is no exception. Astronauts produce a couple of pounds of trash per crew member per day. To better manage this, NASA is developing a new trash processing system to demonstrate on the International Space Station. This work is critical for potential future missions traveling farther from Earth, to the moon and Mars, and for longer periods of time. Current modes of trash disposal and waste management will not be available at the extreme durations and distances these missions will require – while the space station is only 250 miles above us in low-Earth orbit, the moon is about 240,000 miles away, and Mars is on average about 140,000,000 miles away! In addition, the new system will give astronauts the ability to recover valuable resources from their trash, an important thing when you have to take everything with...

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