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posted by martyb on Saturday June 27 2020, @08:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the really-takes-the-piss?-or-a-load-of-crap? dept.

NASA wants you to design a space toilet for missions to the moon:

NASA issued a call on Thursday asking for ideas for the ultimate space toilet with its Lunar Loo Challenge. The winner of the space toilet challenge could win $35,000 (approximately £28,000, A$51,000) for the top concept.

Although space toilets are already in use (the International Space Station is scheduled to get an upgrade soon), they are designed for microgravity only. Microgravity is when there's weightlessness in space, and NASA's toilet tech has taken care of that problem already. But the new toilets need to be able to work in lunar gravity as well. Lunar gravity is approximately one-sixth of Earth's gravity, so our waste moves a little differently on the moon.

In addition to having the new toilet function in both microgravity and lunar gravity, it has to adhere to a set of strict specifications. It must have a mass of less than 15 kilograms in Earth's gravity, occupy a volume no greater than 0.12 meter cubed, consume less than 70 watts of power, operate with a noise level less than 60 decibels (no louder than an average bathroom fan) and accommodate both female and male users of different shapes and sizes.

[...] "We are looking forward to seeing what the crowdsourcing community can come up with that is out-of-the-box and bring different perspectives for what is needed for a toilet."

[...] "Think about the needs for the toilet and don't worry about it being for a spacecraft," Interbartolo added. "Break it down to the base functions needed in terms of handling male/female urine, fecal, menses, and how you could do it in a compact and low mass way for an easy-to-use system. These concepts are similar for campers, boats, remote and undeveloped locations."

This challenge has two categories: Technical and Junior. Submissions to both categories are due no later than 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT on Aug. 17.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2020, @11:33AM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2020, @11:33AM (#1013202)

    [...] "We are looking forward to seeing what the crowdsourcing community can come up for $15,000 so we can take the $15,800,000 savings compared to what we would have paid Boeing and apply it to more hookers and blow to enjoy while we watch Elon launching more rockets in a day than we ever launched in a year".

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  • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday June 27 2020, @03:33PM

    by Immerman (3985) on Saturday June 27 2020, @03:33PM (#1013279)

    All indicators are that NASA's getting out of the rocket-launching business now that there's an option other than Russia. As well they should - let them focus on science and space exploration, not lifting stuff to orbit.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2020, @06:13PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2020, @06:13PM (#1013324)

    Still better than paying Boeing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  • (Score: 0) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 27 2020, @09:40PM (2 children)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday June 27 2020, @09:40PM (#1013406) Homepage

    More like, "Since NASA are mostly diversity hires now, we have to crowdsource even the most simple idea even though we should know all there is to know about shitting since our employees spend half their day on the shitters rather than coding or astrophysics."

    Musk is well-known for the racist merit system in his companies, which is why he "gets shit done" all day rather than "gets done shit" all day like NASA.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2020, @10:36PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2020, @10:36PM (#1013436)

      Racist merit? Do they get promotions based on their cross-burning skills?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @05:41AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @05:41AM (#1013573)

        In all seriousness, I tried to get a job at SpaceX but they turned me down because I didn't have enough experience (only one year) of running my local Ku Klux Klan chapter.

  • (Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday June 28 2020, @10:18AM

    by driverless (4770) on Sunday June 28 2020, @10:18AM (#1013619)

    They're taking the wrong approach to this, instead of redoing the reception end, redo the production end. Change the diet to tacos, burritos, and refried beans and the toilet problem gets converted to a far simpler gas venting problem.

    I'll take my $35,000 in Taco Bell vouchers, thanks.