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Old November 27th 16, 07:45 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Fred J. McCall[_3_]
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Default Using waste for propulsion ?

JF Mezei wrote:

On 2016-11-26 22:12, Fred J. McCall wrote:

Yes, magic would be quite handy.


Are you aware that on earth, there are some power plants already bult
next to dump sites that collect the methane that is produced from
decomposition and power the turbines to produce electricity ? It isn't
magin.


Are you aware of how that **** works? It's not at all what you're
talking about wanting to do, it's not in space, and it involves 'dump
sites' not '****e sites'. See my other posting on this topic. Then
read this:

https://www.britannica.com/science/feces


human waste. You can't just wave your magic willie and turn it into
methane. Even if you could, how do you get it from the 'digester'
into a high pressure fuel tank?


I never suggested the tech was "space ready". But it exists already.


No, it doesn't. What can be done here on Earth with a garbage dump
containing thousands of tons of food garbage gestating for years and
what can be done with relatively tiny amounts of dried human waste
over a few months are so different as to not be comparable in any way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landfill_gas_utilization


And
leveraging the power of crap has not been implemnented in space flight
yet because that is just bagged and disposed of.


No. Leveraging the power of crap has not been implemented in space
flight yet because it isn't particularly practical, which is why it is
just bagged and disposed of.


And spaceflight has
never had systems scaled for 100 passengers on a ship. So ECLSS systems
on a 4 month journey will have to deal with crap for 100 pax one way or
the other.


What the **** is a 'pax'? If you mean 'passenger', write 'passenger'.
Once the water is removed there will be around half a ton of solid
'crap' accumulated during the whole trip. You could store it in a
closet.


Unless, of course, the food consists of pills and water and people are
put into induced comas or whatever lethargic state.


Don't be silly.


Look at how much NASA and Russia spent to develop support for 6
cremembers for a few months. Now, you have to scale it to 100 humans for
3-4 months each way. (and this assumes the ships is restocked from
scratch on Mars with food/air/water/fuel for return journey. (as opposed
to stocked for both journeys uypon departing earth).


Your argument doesn't make any sense at this point. You are going to
have to carry food, water, air, and fuel REGARDLESS of what you do
with the half ton of desiccated ****e at the Mars end of the journey.


--
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