This week, NASA revealed that the International Space Station’s Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) is recycling 98 percent of all water astronauts bring aboard the station…
This week, NASA revealed that the International Space Station’s Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) is recycling 98 percent of all water astronauts bring aboard the station…
This is accurate except that the Dragon and Cygnus spacecraft do not burn up in the atmosphere. Waste is usually loaded a disposable spacecraft like the Progress which does burn up on reentry. Some is returned to earth occasionally for testing via the Dragon or Cygnus.
Yeah, it would big news if a Dragon burned up.
I assumed they meant it was ejected during reentry but on reflection that would not be worth the risk…though I do like the idea of flaming dragon poop streaming across the sky.
You’re not far off, most spacecraft have multiple parts, you can simplify to two:
the orbital module and the return module
The Dragon does indeed have an expendable module they call the “trunk”. The capsule comes home but the trunk doesn’t.
The NG Cygnus, ESA ATV, and JAXA HTV are all fully expendable. They burn up completely.
The soyuz is the best example, it has three parts and only one comes home. They save a lot of weight by only needing to make one part strong enough to make it back.
Picture from Wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Soyuz-TMA_descent_module.jpg
Unfortunately Cygnus does not provide return capability, it is fully expendable so anything downmassed is going to experience a really hot welcome.
The Dragon has some expendable storage that can also be used for “garbage day”.
Would there be any use to try and slingshot the poop to mars or the moon or sth?
Maybe even have it not exposed to vacuum or have the bacteria in a dormant spore state. Just feels like such a waste to just burn it up,
Contamination is a big problem and everyone in spaceflight does their best to prevent it.
Earth microbes that spread to other bodies might give us false information in our search for extraterrestrial life.
NASA has an office for planetary protection. They don’t protect earth, in fact they protect all the other planets from us!
https://sma.nasa.gov/sma-disciplines/planetary-protection