Disposal Techinques
Conservative calculations show that for a crew of twelve occupying the colony for a full year, trash generated will approach just over 20,000 Kg., excluding lander weights and mining operations. Reduction of this trash through the use of shredders and solar furnaces will help to minimize volumes, but will still leave an appreciable amount of material for disposal. In developing an effective lunar trash management program, four factors must be considered:
- 1. The process must be energy efficient
- 2. The required equipment be simple and already used in colony operations
- 3. Disposal will have minimal impact on the environment
- 4. the method is economical from a terrestrial and lunar point of view.
When basic human survival is in question, however, little time is spent on protecting the very environment that threatens man, as witnessed by the ring of garbage encircling early Antartic bases and the tainting of water-producing snow by diesel engine exhaust (Lweis, 1965). During establishment of the initial lunar outpost, the practical approach to trash disposal may well be the use of a nearby crater. This crater fillilng cannot continue, however, once the outpost facilities are operational. As threats to survival lessen, a system of trash management must be quickly instituted.
Recommendations
Initial Procedures
Since trash quantitied generated by the early research outpost phase of the colony will be low, this trash could be handled through surface storage until burial operations became feasible. Containerazation of the reduced trash would be preferred using a standard container, which would facilitate eventual handling and disposal by robotic or manned vehicles.
Landers/Construction Debris
An aggresive approach will be required for landers and debris left by base establishment operations. Unlike the benign, low-volume trash of crew and base operations, this category encompasses large weights and volumes as well as potential hazards from unspent fuel remaining in the landers.
Lacking a permanent landing facility, the expendable landers will touch down at various locations near the colony site. Collection of these vehicles to a common point will be essential and easily complpeted with the crane/transport system used to unload the habitat modules. Storage of the landers in a 'work tent' will prevent exposure to the temperature extremes and provide a well-illuminated shelter to dismantle or modify landers and to salvage parts. Other landers might be outfitted to serve as remote 'safe houses' along exploration routes, or segmented for experiment pallets.
Nuclear Power Sources
Discarded power sources, such as the SP-100 pose a critical challenge for the lunar trash management program. Of the two alternatives of refurbishment or burial, burial is likely to be the preferred method. An alternative to direct burial and a method of grouping these sources together, is the creation of a subsurface chamber as studied by Ehricke (Ekricke, 1985). In this study, a one kiloton blast produces a 40 meter diameter cavern capable of storing numerous units.
Added benefits include centralization of active and spent power sources which will reduce environmental contamination and allow a single group of robotic servicers to care for the power sources and handle the disposal process. Site preparation, whether in a a creater or using a shadow shield, would be limited to a single site instead of several (see Figure 5). Further study is required to analyze the effects imparted to sub-surface structures by a cavern producing blast and verify the technical feasibility of boring or melting an access shaft large enough to allow the reactor to fall into the underground chamber.
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