trash on the moon:
the inevitable contamination of the lunar environment

By: Thomas M. Ciesla
page 5 of 5

Conclusions

While it is true that the United States is entering the twilight of landfill disposal for solid waste, this method has served this industrialized nation for decades (Marro, 1987). Direct burial of reduced non-recycable trash will be the only feasible long-term solution on the lunar surface. The pivotal question of course, is when should the process begin? The machines used on the Moon to bury habitat modules could provide small-scale landfill operations, though from a practical point of view, this may not be feasible until mining operations begin.

A potential delaying factor is cost. Maintaining a permanent presence in remote environments is always expensive and cost involved in space exploration are extreme by terrestrial comparisons. Costs for establishing an Antarctic base are the extreme end of the spectrum on Earth. For a colony placed in a completely abiotic environment, the Antarctic costs seem trivial, expanding to include technology development for machinery (Crockford 1988; Brazel, et.al. 1988), transportation to the lunar surface (Sauer, 1985), added labor hours and risks to crew health due to the increased radiation exposure on the lunar surface.

A second potential delaying factor involves this radiation environment. Lacking appropriate robotic vehicles in the early colony, we must ask ourselves, is the goal of maintaining the lunar environment in near pristine condition worth the additional radiation exposure? For each stage of colony growth, mission planners must monitor trash production and determine at what point will hte accumulation of debris begin to affect the safety and efficiency of the colony.

With the size of the colony in a constant state of change for the first five to seven years, the management plan must also be flexible. If landfill is the ultimate goal for disposal, the plan must set conditions early on to better meet this goal as the infrastructure matures (see FIgure 6).

Effective collection procedures will be required as early outpost assembly nears completion and the research base becomes operational. Compaction and shredding (Singer, et.al. 1973) of appropriate trash will help to keep volumes down and ease storage of the debris in containers. Planners must determine the proper locations for temporary storage of the containerized trash, taking into consideration travel distances and proximity to future mining sites.

The placement of nuclear power sources will require a substantial effort for early colonists. It is doubtful that the centralization of power sources discussed earlier will be withinn the technical capabilities of the early colony. This would dictate the existence of at least one potential radiation 'dead zone'.

Unlike their orbital counterparts, surface colonists will not have to worry about volume restrictions -- when the garbage can gets full, they can simply empty it outside! It will require insightful planning to develop a flexible management plan that establishes trash as a problem to be dealt with from the intital stages of colony life. A problem that will require expenditures of time, money and machiinery, and include crew discipline to protect the lunar surface from ourselves.

References

• Adams, J.H.; Shapiro, M.M. Irradiation Of The Moon By Galactic Cosmic Rays And Other Particles. Lunar Bases and Space Avtivities Of The 21st Century (1985) pp. 315-327
• Bloomfield, H.S.; Nuclear Reactor Systems For Lunar Base Surface Power. Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century, Symposium II (1988), Report #LBS-88-251.
• Brazel, J.W.; Williams, W.H.; Murray. G.V.; McLaren, B.K.; Lunar Base Construction Equipment. Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century, Symposium II (1988) Report # LBS-88-065.
• Briggs, R.; Sacco, A.; Environmental Considerations and Waste Planning On The Lunar Surface. Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century (1985) pp. 423-430
• Buden, D.; Angelo, J.A.; Nuclear Energy -- Key To Lunar Development. Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century (1985) pp. 85-98.
• Burnett, A.; Development of a Trash Hanlding Subsystem for A Manned Spacecraft; (1980) NASA Report CR=160904. Cortright, E.M.; Apollo Expeditions To The Moon (1975), NASA Publication SP-350.
• Crockford, W.W.; Lunar Surface Systems Concepts -- Initial Lunar Base Philosophy. Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century (1988); Report #LBS-88-188.
• Dalton, C.; Hohman, E.; A Lunar Colony (1972, NASA Grant NGT 44-005-114).
• Ehricke, K.A.; Lunar Industrialization and Settlement -- Birth Of Polyglobal Civilization; Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century (1985), pp. 827-855.
• French, J.R.; Nuclear Powerplants For Lunar Bases; Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century (1986) pp. 99-106.
• Lewis, R.S.; A Continent For SCience (1965); Vicking Press, N.Y.
• Marro, A.; The Rush To Burn' Newsday Inc. Long Island, N.Y. (1987).
• Sauer, R/L/; Metabolic Support For A Lunar Base; Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century (1985) pp. 647-651.
• Singer, G.A.; Hanlon, W.H.; Senator, F.E.; Advanced Trash Management System; Intersociety Conference On Environmental Systems (1973).

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