Waste gas analysis during simulated Mars mission

NASA''s Anne Caraccio studied off-gases from the crew''s trash with a portable Gasmet FTIR gas analyzer. “Waste from the crew''s everyday activities are routinely sorted and stored, but we need to know the composition of the off-gases from these materials for health and safety reasons, and also to determine whether these gases could be utilized beneficially,” Anne reports.

Each crew member conducted their own research, which in Anne''s case was known as ‘Trash to Gas'', a programme working on the development of a reactor to convert waste from long-duration missions into useful commodities such as water, life-support oxygen and rocket propellant.

Anne was able to conduct monitoring both inside and outside the Habitat in order to compare data with the waste off-gas measurements. “Size, weight and portability are obviously of major importance on a project such as this, but the main advantage of this technology was its ability to measure a large number of compounds simultaneously; I measured 24 VOCs such as acetaldehyde, methane and ethylene, but the instrument also stores spectra for the measurements so it is possible to retrospectively analyze data if it becomes necessary to look for a particular compound at a later stage.”

The FTIR gas analyzer, a DX4040, was supplied by Gasmet Technologies. “We were very pleased to be able to help with this project,” says Gasmet''s Jim Cornish. “The simultaneous monitoring of multiple compounds is a common application for our FTIR analyzers, however, they are usually employed measuring gases in stack emissions, industrial processes, greenhouse gas research and in hazmat scenarios. We usually tell prospective customers that advanced FTIR technology is simple to use; ‘it''s not rocket science'' we tell them, so I guess we will have to rephrase that now.”

Looking forward, Anne says: “The technology to travel to Mars has not yet been fully developed, but it is anticipated that a human mission could be possible in the future. The journey to Mars would take around one year, so I hope that our Trash-to-Gas research will contribute to the science that could make such a mission possible.”