Here’s where you come in: NASA will award $30,000 to whoever can solve their space poop problem. Astronaut Rick Mastracchio asks you to “imagine a scenario where a crew is on their way to the moon, and there is an emergency where the vehicle begins losing cabin pressure. The crew will need to quickly put on space suits to protect themselves from the vacuum of space.”
“I can tell you that space flight is not always glamorous,” Mastracchio emphasizes. “People need to go to the bathroom even in a spacecraft. How is this waste treated such that it does not harm the astronaut or even kill them?”
Since the spaceship no longer provides that protection,
the astronauts need a suit to provide “clean air, water, shelter and enough nutrients for up to six days” until they can safely return to the hellish planet we call earth. But what do you do if you need to pee or poop? What happens if a lady astronaut gets her period?
Going to the bathroom in a space suit exposes you to infection and sepsis. Although NASA has the technology to send people to outer space, the agency is still using an antiquated technology called “diapers”—babies, you know what I’m talking about—to deal with this astronaut waste problem.