NASA Space poop challenge - solve it and win 30k

[hornetrider]

How hard can it be?

NASA said:

NASA is now sponsoring the "Space Poop Challenge," through which it is seeking the public's help to devise an "in-suit waste management system" for astronauts to use for up to 144 hours at a time.

Link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/11/29/can-...

[jmorgan]

Just put a flap in.

Or fit a peg before the helmet is locked down........

[Eric Mc]

A poop air lock.

Poop into a box at the rear of the suit, Seal the box with an internal sliding air tight shutter. Release the air in the box through a valve. Open an external door/flap. Wiggle bum. Poop floats out into the vacuum of space - where it freeze dries. Close outer door and reseal box.

Good to go.

And the poop later enters the earth's atmosphere and creates a lovely shooting star for someone to wish on.

Can I claim my £30,0000 now?

[funkyrobot]

Eric Mc said:

A poop air lock.

Poop into a box at the rear of the suit, Seal the box with an internal sliding air tight shutter. Release the air in the box through a valve. Open an external door/flap. Wiggle bum. Poop floats out into the vacuum of space - where it freeze dries. Close outer door and reseal box.

Good to go.

And the poop later enters the earth's atmosphere and creates a lovely shooting star for someone to wish on.

Can I claim my £30,0000 now?

I can imagine someone looking up and saying 'that shooting star is st. Show me a good one.' Errrmmm....

[Eric Mc]

I wonder what colour streak a poo meteor makes?

[Skii]

Eric Mc said:

A poop air lock.

Poop into a box at the rear of the suit, Seal the box with an internal sliding air tight shutter. Release the air in the box through a valve. Open an external door/flap. Wiggle bum. Poop floats out into the vacuum of space - where it freeze dries. Close outer door and reseal box.

Good to go.

And the poop later enters the earth's atmosphere and creates a lovely shooting star for someone to wish on.

Can I claim my £30,0000 now?

Exposing your rectum to a possible vacuum if any of the valves or seals fail

No you can't Eric

[Eric Mc]

You could say that about any space suit to be honest.

[MartG]

Given that the only reason an astronaut would be in a suit for en extended period of time would be during an emergency such as a failure causing depressurisation of the spacecraft, perhaps a simpler approach would be to provide emergency inflatable capsules where an astronaut would be able to get out of the suit to get cleaned up etc. - a bit like the BEAM module on a smaller scale. Such a system would also allow an astronaut to receive medical treatment if necessary, and if indeed the emergency was due to a meteor penetrating the spacecraft, could be a lot quicker to get into than a suit ( and you could store EVA suits in them so the astronaut would be able to leave the pod )

If extended EVA use is needed, then maybe they should be looking at von Braun's old 'bottle suit' idea

[funkyrobot]

hornetrider said:

How hard can it be?

Depends on what you have eaten.

[Eric Mc]

MartG said:

Given that the only reason an astronaut would be in a suit for en extended period of time would be during an emergency such as a failure causing depressurisation of the spacecraft, perhaps a simpler approach would be to provide emergency inflatable capsules where an astronaut would be able to get out of the suit to get cleaned up etc. - a bit like the BEAM module on a smaller scale. Such a system would also allow an astronaut to receive medical treatment if necessary, and if indeed the emergency was due to a meteor penetrating the spacecraft, could be a lot quicker to get into than a suit ( and you could store EVA suits in them so the astronaut would be able to leave the pod )

If extended EVA use is needed, then maybe they should be looking at von Braun's old 'bottle suit' idea

Did you build that? It looks good.

I like the "NACA" badge.

How about the Space Pod from "2001"?

[funkyrobot]

MartG said:

Given that the only reason an astronaut would be in a suit for en extended period of time would be during an emergency such as a failure causing depressurisation of the spacecraft, perhaps a simpler approach would be to provide emergency inflatable capsules where an astronaut would be able to get out of the suit to get cleaned up etc. - a bit like the BEAM module on a smaller scale. Such a system would also allow an astronaut to receive medical treatment if necessary, and if indeed the emergency was due to a meteor penetrating the spacecraft, could be a lot quicker to get into than a suit ( and you could store EVA suits in them so the astronaut would be able to leave the pod )

If extended EVA use is needed, then maybe they should be looking at von Braun's old 'bottle suit' idea

I guess good things do come from our endeavours in space:

[Skii]

What kind of poo are we talking about anyway? hard and clean or soft and smeary?

[Simpo Two]

Simply fill the bottom half of the spacesuit with cat litter.

[Morningside]

Considering this is a quite a huge problem for NASA and other space agencies I would have thought 300K would be a better incentive.

[Eric Mc]

How have they managed so far?

As far as I am aware, they currently use a "nappy" arrangement (diapers to any Americans reading) and most astronauts just hang on whilst out on an EVA. Very few EVAs have ever exceeded 8 hours in total so just taking advance precautions is usually good enough.

"Wee wees" aren't too much of a problem.

[Einion Yrth]

Eric Mc said:

"Wee wees" aren't too much of a problem.

Stuff a big condom down the leg of the suit works o.k. for blokes, but for the lassies?

[Eric Mc]

They were a form fitting device over the necessary part of their anatomy that collects what it needs to collect.

The Space Suit designed for Space Shuttle EVAs (and now used on the ISS) is "unisex" with minimal adjustments needed for male/female wearers.

[funkyrobot]

Eric Mc said:

How have they managed so far?

As far as I am aware, they currently use a "nappy" arrangement (diapers to any Americans reading) and most astronauts just hang on whilst out on an EVA. Very few EVAs have ever exceeded 8 hours in total so just taking advance precautions is usually good enough.

"Wee wees" aren't too much of a problem.

I guess the lack of gravity means they can 'hang on' longer than if they were on Earth? Less gravity, less of a pressing issue.

[Eric Mc]

Not altogether sure whether gravity makes much difference, to be honest. Most of us feel the need to go through internal pressure - which would be much the same in Zero G.

More of a factor might be the fact that Zero G changes the way the body absorbs nutrients and metabolises. Astronauts often find that their wee rate goes up quite a lot for the first few days of being in Zero G. It then goes down to more normal levels for the remainder of their mission.

I haven't heard whether there is much of a change to the poo factor though.

In the days of Gemini and Apollo where there was effectively no on board toilet facilities at all (apart from a pee tube and plastic bags) the astronauts went onto a low fibre diet a week or so before the mission. This slowed down the manufacture of poo but didn't stop it completely. The crews found (on average) they could hang on for around four or five days without having to reach for the poo bags. The record, I think, was around 8 days.

[jmorgan]

funkyrobot said:

I guess the lack of gravity means they can 'hang on' longer than if they were on Earth? Less gravity, less of a pressing issue.

Asteroids/comets gas out when they get too warm, do astronauts do the same.....