Trash to Supply Gas: Optimizing Propellant Production

Extended missions on the Moon and beyond are expected to generate a significant amount of waste that must be managed. While different storage and removal options are being considered, there has been a push to increase sustainability on long-term missions by reusing or repurposing resources. Converting waste into useful gases through trash-to-gas technologies is a promising method to reuse the elemental resources contained within the waste stream while simultaneously reducing volume. This paper looks at several promising trash to supply gas (TtSG) technologies and discusses ways the waste processing methods could be optimized for propellant production. The optimized methods are traded against one another based on an equivalent system mass (ESM) analysis that accounts for the reduction in waste volume and production of propellant over extended lunar surface missions. The results of this work inform waste management tactics and technological developments necessary for long-term sustainable space missions.