OSCAR Ground Testing 2021

Kennedy Space Center engineers conduct vibration tests inside the Florida spaceport’s Vibration Test Lab on Jan. 14, 2021, in preparation for the suborbital flight of NASA’s Orbital Syngas Commodity Augmentation Reactor, or OSCAR, slated for later this year. From left are Gino Carro, a pressure vessels and systems engineer for the center’s Laboratory Support Services and Operations contract; Ray Pitts, co-principal investigator for OSCAR; David Rinderknecht, NASA chemical engineer; and Malay Shah, NASA thermal/fluid analysis engineer. Beginning as an Early Career Initiative project, OSCAR studies technology to convert trash and human waste into useful gasses such as methane, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. By processing small pieces of trash in a high-temperature reactor, OSCAR is advancing new and innovative technology for managing waste in space.

Credit: NASA