Indian researchers have discovered a new method that will allow human waste to fuel spacecraft traveling from the Moon to Earth.

Pratap Pullammanappallil from the University of Florida said this process can also have practical applications here on Earth. He says this fuel can be used in towns or campuses that convert waste into fuel.

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NASA has been developing plans to build a lunar facility inhabited by humans. This lunar base could be built from 2019 to 2024. Reducing the cargo weight of a spacecraft returning to Earth is an important aspect of this lunar mission.

Human waste generated during space flight are stored in containers and loaded onto cargo vehicles that are left to burn-up as they re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. This method is impractical since it takes a lot of fuel to bring back all the stored waste to Earth.

Also, dumping human waste on the Moon's surface isn't an option. NASA came up with an agreement in collaboration with University of Florida for ideas regarding waste management in space.

Pullammanappallil said the university's team is figuring out how much methane can be generated from leftover or uneaten food and human waste. Methane can power rockets and enough of the gas can be produced on the Moon to power spacecraft returning to Earth.

NASA supplied the researchers with packaged human waste that also includes food waste. The team ran lab tests to find out how much methane they need from human waste and how quick the gas can be produced.

The results show some 290 liters of methane can be generated by each crew member per day for a week. After these positive results, the team developed an "anaerobic digester process" that kills pathogens and bacteria from human waste to produce biogas, which is a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide.

On Earth, biogas can be used for heating, electricity and transportation. The digester process works by breaking down organic matter from human waste and generating 200 gallons of non-potable water every year from the waste.

Using electrolysis, the water is split into hydrogen and oxygen. Astronauts can breathe this oxygen from waste as a back-up system.

This study of how human waste can be transformed into fuel for different applications is detailed in the journal, Advances in Space Research.

TagsHuman Waste Can Apparently Fuel Space Missions and Provide Oxygen for Astronauts, NASA, lunar missions, human waste for space exploration, human waste fuel rockets space missions oxygen astronauts