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from the another-in-our-ongoing-instructional-series dept.
NASA has a problem with #1 and #2 in space. What to do? Crowdsource it, in the form of a contest where anyone can submit a superior method. The contest just ended with NASA awarding $30,000 to the winning entries.
NASA astronauts' current method of waste disposal involves using a diaper during spacewalks and launch and entry, but these systems can be used only for about a day. The agency noted that it is difficult to design pooping systems for microgravity, where fluids and other things float. Maintaining good hygiene for these systems was among the primary challenges participants were tasked with solving.
In a description of the challenge, NASA said it was looking for technologies that have a "technical readiness level of 4" on its "ready for flight" scale, meaning that the solution could be tested in one year and be ready for space in three years. NASA added that it would consider solutions that would need more time if they were considered breakthroughs.
The goal is to use the system on a mission in the next three or four years, the challenge page said.
An earlier article about the problem: http://www.space.com/35576-space-poop-system-orion-deep-space.html.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by turgid on Thursday February 16 2017, @01:53PM
What you want is a cylindrical room with a toilet pan on the wall which can be spun so that the astronaut can sit and get the jobby done. It doesn't need to spin that fast, since you only need a little centripetal acceleration to make Mr Hanky go in the right direction.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Thursday February 16 2017, @02:13PM
Keeping airtight seals when spinning just one room is hard. Easier to spin the entire object in space. However the ISS (for example) is not designed to be spun for artificial gravity, neither is anything else right now. Besides, the are plenty of times when you are not in a position to be spun around so you can poop (e.g. space walks).
(Score: 4, Insightful) by turgid on Thursday February 16 2017, @02:15PM
I generally don't poop when I am out for a walk. Why would the seals need to be air tight? I was thinking it would be inside the main hull of the space craft, like a giant washing machine cylinder.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Thursday February 16 2017, @02:56PM
> I generally don't poop when I am out for a walk.
Me neither, but NASA highlighted spacewalks as an issue, so presumably if the spacewalks are long, you need to be able to poop in your suit. A quick search took me to this page: http://www.answers.com/Q/Which_astronaut_have_longest_space_walk [answers.com]
Where apparently the longest spacewalk is 8hrs and 56min. I can feasibly believe an astronaut may need the loo during those almost 9 hours in the suit. Quite a few spacewalks are multi-hour long themselves.
> Why would the seals need to be air tight? I was thinking it would be inside the main hull of the space craft, like a giant washing machine cylinder.
Because then you would have splatter everywhere, and floating turds in space isn't my idea of fun really. Unlike in a gravity environment, things don't drop where they are deposited, but rather float around and find their way out of small holes and cause issues.
While inside the cylinder may be spinning within the hull, the hull itself isn't, so between the hull and spinning cylinder you would have floating turds and piss. If not sealed that will get out and float around the rest of the station, which sounds like a recipe for problems, not to mention the smell.
Plus I don't want to be the one who has to go clean the hull where the cylinder is. Easier if the system disposes of the excrement into bags, which can be jettisoned when convenient.
(Score: 2) by shipofgold on Thursday February 16 2017, @09:18PM
If I read TFA correctly the issue really is what happens when there is a catastrophic failure in the spacestation and the astronauts need to put on spacesuits for an extended period of time. Those diapers are going to get pretty ripe after 4-5 days.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday February 16 2017, @07:46PM
> I generally don't poop when I am out for a walk.
I was going to suggest telling the astronauts to just go to the outhouse. Great view, no need to dig a hole, and no smell either.
Then I thought about how unpleasant it would be for another ship to get hit by a multi-km/s frozen turd.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday February 16 2017, @09:34PM
I was going to suggest telling the astronauts to just go to the outhouse. Great view, no need to dig a hole, and no smell either.
When I was a kid, we used to go on trips to a cabin with an outhouse. In the late fall or winter, there would sometimes be jokes about having to go at night and "freezing your ass off."
Except in the space "outhouse"... it could actually happen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @03:33AM
While I'd prefer artificial gravity in most of the space station, you don't actually need to spin the entire room.
You can grab a bucket and swing it round and round in a room and the room can be airtight, there's no problem with airtight seals.
So have the toilet in an air-tight room, astronaut goes into the toilet and then the toilet spins. Stuff ends up in a container in the toilet. Dispose of waste when toilet is no longer spinning.
Anyway NASA is a sad joke of an agency nowadays. They should be building stations with artificial gravity, not trying to do reruns/"franchise reboots" with fancier tech.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifuge_Accommodations_Module [wikipedia.org]
The Centrifuge Accommodations Module (CAM) is a cancelled element of the International Space Station.
It was cancelled in 2005[2] alongside the Habitation Module and the Crew Return Vehicle, because of ISS cost overruns and scheduling problems in Shuttle assembly flights.
Not enough resources for basic important stuff but enough resources to bullshit about going to Mars (and keep repeating stupid isolation experiments, e.g. in places like Hawaii: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/aug/28/mars-scientists-nasa-dome-hawaii-mountain-isolation [theguardian.com]
http://time.com/4639080/nasa-hawaii-human-space-travel-mars/ [time.com]
I wonder if the NASA administrators get a surfing/diving allowance.
)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday February 16 2017, @10:48PM
With centrifugal acceleration, there always a Coriolis one. At small radii, it will have values comparable with the centrifugal force, resulting in bending Mr Hanky.
The end of mr hanky closer to the emitting orifice will have a smaller velocity than the distal end, which needs to be accelerated to stay along the same radius. Not a problem at large distances from the rotation centre - otherwise you'd see it whenever you poop on Earth - but at a rotation radius of 1 meters, 15-20cm - the "drop" of a constipated mr hanky - will be non-neglijible.
Now, 1m rotation radius implies a 2m diameter. Place other components required for toilet rotation and containment around and the size of the toilet will become far from trivial in the economy of space aboard the space station.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford