Solid Waste Compaction and Dehumidification System

The innovation is a system that will produce a densely compacted, encapsulated form of solid waste that is resistant to biological degradation. Currently, the compaction and storage of solid waste on crewed space missions is based upon the crew manually crushing the mixture of wastes and confining the compacted mass within plastic bags or by wrapping with tape. The innovative system would provide NASA and crewed space missions with an integrated, mechanical processing system that will compact and dehumidify solid wastes for safe storage aboard short-duration missions, or long-duration missions, wherein processing of waste for resource recovery is not planned.