Sources Of Trash
Sources of lunar trash are best defined through colony activities, of which, three major categories can be identified: personal activities, colony base activities and transportation activities (see Figure 3). Colony maturity will control the production rate of each category in two ways: (1) by the level of activiity done during a particular phase (therefore the number of crew and equipment required); (2) the origination point of various materials, equipment and expendibles. The young colony will be a research outpost dependent on Earth for 100% of hardware and resupply. The mature colony, however, will be capable of local production of some supplies and products.
Early Colony Construction
Establishment of the lunar base will be a hardware intensive phase of operation, requiring at least ten landers with associated payloads of modules, equipment, power sources and expendables totalling 199,580 Kg of deliverables at the start of mining operations (Briggsm et.al. 1985). This will leave approximately 48,378 Kg of landers strewn about the colony site, along with another 4,535 Kg. of construction debris. This startling amount of scrap material will accumulate during the first five years of colony activity (see Figure 4).
Personal Activities
The average American creates between 2.2 and 2.7 Kg of trash per day, including food scraps; up from 1.8 Kg. a day at the turn of the century (Marro, 1987). A number of factors peculiar to life on the Moon will drop this daily production rate significantly:
- 1. With current technology payload costs to reach LEO and the Moon remain formidable. This cost factor wi;; keep the total volume of expendable materials to a minimum.
- 2. The separation of food scraps from trash (which accounts for 8.1% of the average figure discussed above) will be required due to the "active organic" classification of food products. This identifies sources of bacteria producing compounds, which will be processed with other human waste byproducts for recycling
- 3.
Paper, a major component of American trash (estimated at 37% of the daily rate), will be present in much smaller quantities on the Moon, and in some forms, absent altogether (i.e. newspaper, periodicals and junk mail).
The average production rate in the early lunar colony should be closer to .90 Kg per day, per colonist. At this rate a permanent crew of twelve will produce just over 3,628 Kg. of personal trash per year. These rates are expected to increase as the colony increases in size and sophistication, particularly when mining operations begin. As mining and eventually manufacturing capabilities develop, a number of items once brought from Earth will be produced on the Moon. Increased availability of goods will provide easier replacement and make discarding these items easier. It is estimated that trash production will increase to 1.5 Kg. per day, per colonist.
Not included in these personal rates are by-products from wet-oxidation processing of human waste. The average crew member will produce a combination of carbon ash and phosphate salts totalling 7.7Kg per year. For a crew of twelve this represents an annual amount of 92.98 Kg. of compounds rare to the lunar environment. It is likely that these materials will be stored for incorporation into regolith in preparation for farming on Lunar greenhouses.
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