Logistics Materials for Reuse

This Logistics Materials for Reuse Project development effort involved evaluating the requirements for cargo packing, logistics materials, and restraint materials for Deep Space Logistics missions. The team surveyed new, commercially available materials to identify those that could meet NASA’s delivery requirements and serve as feedstock for in situ functions such as trash-to-gas (TtG) conversion or additive manufacturing. The available commercial materials were down selected to test and make recommendations on how to qualify a new packing material and/or restraint system for deep space missions, made from materials that can be repurposed more sustainably than current materials.
Current state of the art (SOTA) for food packaging (which becomes mission trash) is a multi-layer metal and polymer matrix (Appendix A), prepared in single person serving sizes. The harnessing material for logistics does not consider any type of follow-on trash/mass repurposing and cannot be currently recycled or repurposed easily. Current 3D printing feedstock materials are not able to process multi-layer polymer packaging, and trash conversion systems (compaction and TtG) are highly complex because of the challenging toxicity in logistics-based polymer matrix food packaging. This work brought in commercial innovations to lay the groundwork for a more sustainable path to logistics, payload processing, and in situ resource utilization (ISRU) applications.
The project goals were as follows:
• Evaluate requirements for cargo packing and restraint for Deep Space Logistics missions.
• Survey new, commercially available materials to identify those that can meet NASA’s delivery requirements and serve as feedstock for in-space 3D printing or serve in other in situ functions such as TtG conversion or additive manufacturing.
• The materials down selected were tested for a variety of properties, including flammability screening, mechanical testing, TtG conversion, and water and oxygen permeation.
Understanding certain properties and behavior would help understand what materials could be recommended as material alternatives that should continue for consideration as packing and/or restraint system for deep space missions, made from materials that can be sustainably repurposed, while also commercially available.

The following is a list of why NASA should develop technologies and systems to process trash and crew waste:
• Resources are needed at sites of exploration.
o The Moon is poor in carbon resources, and water/hydrogen at the poles may not be economical to mine.
o Orbital facilities and habitats on long-duration trips are closed ‘eco’ systems, so trash and crew waste can be used as feedstock for other uses.
• Missions may reduce logistics delivered from Earth (also long-term costs and risk).
o Trash and crew waste can be recycled or processed into other products including life support consumables, propellants and fuels, plastics, and radiation shielding.
• Earth environment and alternative energy.
• Trash and waste recycling and processing is important for the Earth’s environment and the US economy, especially with respect to alternative sources of energy.
o Public perception and disposal difficulty.
 While the ISS can get rid of trash and waste through disposal in the Earth’s atmosphere, human exploration destinations outside of Earth orbit will need to develop a different method of trash disposal.
 Burying trash on planetary surfaces or discarding out of an airlock may not be perceived well by the general public as an adequate form of disposal.
 Keeping trash on-board is a logistical waste of space and will increase propellant consumables for minimum benefit.
• Propellants are one of the largest consumables on missions.
o Production of trash into propellants at the site of exploration can significantly reduce logistics from Earth.
o 1 kg of propellant product delivered to destinations beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) equates to 5 - 10 kg (20 to 150 kg on the launch pad).
• Lunar outpost ascent propulsion.
o Study performed by KSC in 2006 showed that converting CO2 and trash from a crew of four into methane alone was enough to produce half of the methane needed to perform crew ascent to lunar orbit.
• International Space Exploration Coordination Group.
o Joint feasibility study by habitat and ISRU teams showed that early human missions that did not have regenerable life support systems could have logistics reduced by combining ISRU extraction of oxygen from regolith with solar trash processing techniques.
 Concern/issues with trash burial and disposal were also eliminated.
• Production of synthesis gas (H2, CO, CO2) supports propulsion, life support, and in situ manufacturing.
o Conversion of wet trash into synthesis gas eliminates the need for drying waste and subsequent water cleanup.
o Conversion of synthesis gas into water and fuel supports life support and propulsion applications.
o Production of synthesis gas is the first step in higher petrochemical processing for plastics, fertilizer, and other potential products for sustained human exploration.
o Remaining char after trash conversion can be utilized for other applications.
• Residual solid mass after processing is very small so disposal is not difficult.
o Conversion of trash into fuels is of strategic, economic, and environmental interest to the US.
o Trash processing is carbon neutral in alternative fuel production, CO2 greenhouse gas reduction.
o Significant leveraging of terrestrial and military trash processing technologies and partnerships is possible, but a focusing project within NASA is required.
• Technologies and systems support of multiple applications and destinations.
o Technologies can also be used for life support, fuel cell reactant reforming, and ISRU.
o Technologies can be used on orbital habitats as well as on the Moon, Mars, and near earth objects.
o Technologies can be used for terrestrial gas-to-liquid conversion.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.