NASA is asking people to develop a solution to a very basic problem – how to manage human waste when an astronaut is trapped in a space suit for up to a week. The space agency has launched a competition and invited participants to invent a hands-free solution that routes and collects poop away from the astronaut’s body for up to six days.
The winner has a chance to win $30,000. The participants can submit their best “space poop” ideas by December 20.
“I can tell you that space flight is not always glamorous,” said astronaut Rick Mastracchio, a veteran of Space Shuttle Soyuz, and Space Station missions speaking in a video promoting NASA’s call to action. “People need to go to the bathroom even in a spacecraft.”
Currently, the space suits that the astronauts wear do not have any such feature. So they use diapers to take care of any possibility. However, diapers are neither comfortable nor hygienic or harmless beyond a particular time period.
And as NASA is planning to send humans deeper into the space, future goals requires enhancement of the technology to keep the astronauts alive and healthy.
The waste needs to be treated otherwise it may harm or even kill the astronaut, said Mastracchio. “Given enough time, infection, and even sepsis can set in. This is the problem we are asking you to help us with.”
NASA will test winning ideas next year and will roll out successful solutions in the next three.
