On Earth, the LOWR could be used as a means of recycling plastics and other wastes to produce such useful clean burning fuels as methane, which is a prime product for generating electricity, and hydrogen and methanol, both of which are of great interest for use in fuel cells. Manufacture of such fuels from wastes could help achieve a reduction in total emission of greenhouse gases, since if disposed of otherwise or left to decay on their own, the carbon in the waste products would eventually turn into CO2 without displacing other fuel use. Currently, there is much public discussion over the possibility of converting cars to run on natural gas or methanol. If such programs move forward, LOWR technology could also be used to produce fuel for the automotive transportation market as well, thereby contributing significantly to liberating the nation from its dependence on foreign oil. The LOWR would provide NASA with a technology capable of completely recycling the metabolic and plastic wastes of the crew of a lunar base to produce pure breathing oxygen, water, as well as useful reductants or fuels including CO, hydrogen, methane, and/or methanol, thereby significantly reducing lunar base logistic support costs. Mass savings for a 4 person base could be as much as 6 tons per year in lunar payload delivery, which translates into a reduction of 30 tons per year launched to orbit. Using electrical heat in place of solar thermal concentrators to superheat steam, the LOWR could also be used to recycle wastes on the International Space Station, the Orion spacecraft, or at a Mars base. In addition, LOWR technology can also be used to turn Martian atmospheric CO2 into useful methane and oxygen bipropellant. The ability to make such propellant on Mars is potentially a huge cost saver for both robotic Mars sample return (MSR) missions and well as human Mars exploration. Indeed, currently a major show stopper for the Mars sample return mission is the inadequacy of existing aerobrake technology to deliver a payload as massive as a fully-fueled Mars ascent vehicle to the Martian surface. By sharply reducing the mass that needs to be delivered to the surface, LOWR technology could not only reduce the cost of the MSR mission, but potentially enable it.
More »