Development of a Plastic Melt Waste Compactor for Human Space Exploration Missions - A Progress Report

NASA has been developing a waste management device for human space exploration missions called the Plastic Melt Waste Compactor. Human space missions typically generate trash with a quantity of plastic that is twenty percent or greater by mass. The plastic rich trash contains valuable water entrained in food residue and sanitary wipes blended with paper, duct tape, rubber gloves, and other sundry trash items. The Plastic Melt Waste Compactor was designed to provide high trash volume reduction, microbial stabilization, and water recovery from the trash. The Plastic Melt Waste Compactor dries, compresses, melts, and encapsulates the plastic rich trash into a puck that has the consistency of hard plastic. This paper is an update on the progress of the Plastic Melt Waste Compactor project with a primary focus on hardware modifications targeted at improving the thermal efficiency of the hardware. In addition to the thermal improvements on the Plastic Melt Waste Compactor, the hardware was evaluated as a brine de-watering device and the experimental findings are discussed.