Author: Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader / Source: Today I Found Out
One of the harsh realities of life in space is that in an emergency, astronauts may have to live in their space suits for days on end. If that ever does happen, how will they go to the bathroom? That’s the question NASA hopes to answer.
WHEN YOU GOTTA GO…
There are three situations during a typical mission to the International Space Station in which the astronauts may not have access to a bathroom when they need one: 1) on their way to the space station at the start of the mission; 2) on their way back to Earth at the end of the mission; and 3) during spacewalks, when they are outside the station and can’t get back inside easily or quickly. None of these circumstances require the astronauts to go more than ten hours without access to a toilet, so the solution, while awkward, is simple: they wear diapers inside their space suits. And if they have to go, they go.
Even in an emergency, such as if a module of the ISS were to be struck by a piece of space debris and losing pressure, if the astronauts had to evacuate the station they’d be back on Earth in less than a day, so once again, diapers would suffice.
But what about on a mission to Mars, when Earth will be many months away instead of only hours? If a spacecraft on its way to the Red Planet were to be hit by a micrometeoroid and lose pressure, the astronauts might be stuck inside their space suits for several days until they repaired the damage and were able to repressurize the spacecraft.
In such a situation a single diaper, worn for days, would not be good enough.OUT-HOUSE
Ordinarily NASA tackles such challenges with in-house engineers or assigns them to a contractor, but in October 2016 it took a more novel approach. Working with a crowdsourcing website called HeroX, it launched a contest called the “Space Poop Challenge” and invited all comers to take a stab at coming up with an in-suit “fecal, urine and menstrual management system” that would enable an astronaut to remain in their space suit for 144 hours straight. Why 144 hours? The most likely explanation is because 144 hours adds up to six days. (It’s also possible that someone at NASA has a sense of humor: 144 hours is also 12 dozen hours. What’s another word for 12 dozen? Gross!) Any solution entered in the contest would have to be simple enough for an astronaut to operate in microgravity while wearing bulky spacesuit gloves. It would also have to either store the liquid and solid waste somewhere inside the suit, or remove it entirely.
Entrants were given from October 11 until December 20, 2016, to come up with ideas and submit them to NASA. The first prize was $15,000; second prize was $10,000; and third prize was $5,000.
READY, SET, GO!
When NASA gave contestants just over two months to invent something, it wasn’t sure how many people would enter. It was pleasantly surprised to receive more than 5,000 proposals from nearly 20,000 people all over the world, including many who worked in teams. After studying the entries for two months, in February 2017 NASA announced the winners. And they are…
Third Place: SWIMsuit Zero Gravity Underwear
Inventor: Hugo Shelley,…
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