Human Waste May Power NASA's Rockets in the Future

Human waste may not just be flushed down the toilet anymore. At NASA's request, scientists have figured out how to turn human waste into rocket fuel.

Currently, human waste that's, well, created during space missions is collected to burn up upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Yet this new method could very well turn something that's simply garbage into something that's useful during the actual mission.

In 2006, NASA began making plans to build an inhabited facility on the moon's surface between 2019 and 2024. As part of these plans, NASA wanted to reduce the weight of spacecraft leaving Earth. Historically, waste generated in spaceflight wouldn't be used further and would just add to the weight. But for long-term missions, it would be impractical to bring stored waste back to Earth.

"We were trying to find out how much methane can be produced from uneaten food, food packaging and human waste," said Pratap Pullammanappallil, one of the researchers, in a news release. "The idea was to see whether we could make enough fuel to launch rockets and not carry all the fuel and its weight from Earth for the return journey. Methane can be used to fuel the rockets. Enough methane can be produced to come back from the moon."

In this case, the scientists tested exactly how much methane could be produced from human waste and how quickly. In the end, they found that their process could create 290 liters of methane per crew per day.

The findings don't just have applications for space, though. It could also be used in earth-bound applications, such as for heating, electricity and transportation.

The findings were published in the journal Advances in Space Research. 

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