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Thread started 11/29/16 9:47am

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Space Poop Challenge!!

that's right, poop! always such a fun topic!!! smile

before humans can even think about traveling to and colonizing Mars, we will have to figure out how to allow astronauts to safely pee and poop and menstruate inside their suits without exiting the suit, over long periods of time.

currently, astronauts utilize adult diapers for periods of up to one day. however, long-term use of diapers is not a viable solution as they cause rashes and infections.

NASA is offering a reward of $30,000 dollars to anyone who can create a working system to address this concern.

from: https://herox.com/SpacePoop/guidelines

Guidelines

Challenge Overview

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) seeks proposed solutions for urine, fecal and menstrual management systems to be used in the crew’s launch and entry suits over a continuous duration of up to 144 hours. An in-suit waste management system would be beneficial for contingency scenarios or for any long duration tasks.

Waste management systems should address fecal, urine, and/or menstrual waste management in a pressurized survival suit environment for six days while protecting the safety and health of crew members. Solutions should provide for urine collection of up to 1L per day per crew member, for a total of 6 days. Fecal collection rates should be targeted for 75 grams of fecal mass and 75 mL fecal volume per crewmember per day for a total of 6 days duration. Menstrual collection systems should handle up to 80 mL over 6 days.

NASA will award the Solutions it judges to be the most promising for implementation and use on missions in the next three or four years. NASA will consider collaborating with winners and/or other competitors, subject to NASA rules and regulations for contract procurement.

Background

Spaceflight launch and entry suits are worn for launch and entry activities to protect the crew from any off-nominal events. Up until now, a crew member could be in their launch and entry suit for more than 10 hours at a time leading up to either a launch or landing scenario, and former astronauts have worn diapers in case they need to relieve themselves. The diaper is only used temporarily until the crew has successfully launched from or returned to Earth. It is eventually removed along with the launch and entry suit.

Future missions may require long-duration waste management for use by a pressurized suited crew member. In the event of cabin depressurization or other contingency, crew members may need to take refuge in their launch and entry suits for a long-duration (144-hour). The crew member will have less than 60 minutes to get into and seal their spacesuit. To ensure the crew member’s safety, the Solution needs to take no more than 5 minutes of that time. The crew member will remain in their suit at a pressure of 4.3 PSID and in 100% oxygen environment, with a few tasks to complete inside the depressurized vehicle prior to vehicle. A system to route and collect human waste away from the body without the use of hands, that operates in the prescribed environment, is being sought to keep astronauts alive and healthy over 144 hours.

Current commercial products that provide urine waste management utilize gravity to route and collect urine away from the body. Some require the use of hands, and most are not meant to be used for 144 hours. No commercial products have been found that provide fecal waste management for a 144-hour period with or without the use of hands. While the implemented Solution can be discarded after each mission, it does have to function well for 6 days and multiple bowel and bladder evacuations.

ABOUT POOPING IN SPACE….

This challenge does not require you to be working in a field involving microgravity or to fully understand how the body and fluids work in a microgravity environment. We are going to tell you a bit about what ‘s different.

First, microgravity is what you might call “Zero Gravity”. Think vacuum. In a vacuum, solids, liquids and gases do not act the way they do on earth, where they are influenced by earth’s gravity. You probably have no problem imagining things floating around in space. Yes, sometimes solids, liquids, and gases do this. But they also might cling to the nearest surface due to surface tension. Imagine taking a shower up in space and having a glob of water under your armpit. Also, on earth, solids and liquids would likely mix together at least a little when in contact. Maybe not in microgravity.

As for your bodily functions. Well, in space there is no gravity to direct your urine away from your body when you release it. Same for poop. There is no gravity to pull it away when you release it. Menstrual fluid? At least some of it will exit a woman’s body. You don’t want that traveling around your suit. And don’t forget, you can’t always count on poop being solid, especially if you are up in space and nervous about the fact that your vehicle cabin has depressurized.

You don’t want any of these solids and fluids stuck to your body for 6 days. If you have ever taken care of a baby, you know how easy it is to get diaper rash. Left untreated, that can turn into a dangerous infection. You don’t want fecal matter getting into the urethra or the vagina, causing urinary tract or vaginal infections. Of course, you don’t want them to migrate to mouth, nose, ears or cuts. The point? Your Solution has to keep all of these materials away from the body, its orifices, and the spacesuit air inlet/outlet orifices.

How has NASA handled this in the past? Well, for one thing, they weren’t handling it for 6 days. Maybe a few hours. In the recent past, astronauts have worn an extremely absorbent adult diaper (in fact, innovation for space led to many of today’s baby diaper products). Most of the time the diaper is there for emergencies. Prior to that, men wore Urine Collection and Transfer Assembly (UCTA) and Fecal Collection Systems (FCS). Women have never had anything besides the adult diaper while wearing a suit. When not wearing a suit, but within the vehicle, women had a choice of 3 versions of cup-type urine collection systems that used air flow to effectively cause urine to swirl away from a woman’s body. No matter how you look at it, getting rid of wastes has been complicated, crude, uncomfortable, and messy, even with the use of hands. And now we are saying that you don’t have use of your hands – at least not inside the suit next to your body.

ABOUT THE SPACE SUIT

You will design a solution that can be incorporated into the orange Modified Advanced Crew Escape Suit (MACES). MACES has been adapted for missions of longer duration than the original Advanced Crew Escape Suit (ACES) was designed for.

The whole suit, including the gloves, is pressurized to 4.3 PSID to enable the body to function properly. Without pressure the body swells, loses most of its circulation, and of course, causes extreme pain. The gloves are attached by metal bearings to the sleeves to ensure a proper seal. Once the suit is sealed, it must remain sealed until the astronaut enters another pressurized environment. While sealed, it is impossible for an astronaut to access their own body, even to scratch their nose.

Gas (100% oxygen) enters at 4.5 cubic feet per minute through a waist level connector to fill the 2” space between the astronaut’s body and the suit, and circulates out through another waist level connector to be cleaned and brought back to the suit. A mesh cover protects against particles getting into the air connectors. If they did get inside, they could easily block the flow of air.

This gas supply is clearly a very precious commodity. While a very small amount is lost to leakage, the Solution must not add to this leakage. However, careful use 1000 cubic centimeters per minute (0.01 cubic feet per minute) over a period of 3 minutes per use would not jeopardize the integrity of the suit.

The suit allows the astronauts to move around, get into tight spaces, and sit down and buckle up for long periods of time. Your Solution should be comfortable in all of these situations.

Finally, a small power sources of up to 28V with current below 100mA could be provided inside or outside of the suit. To learn more about the functionality of space suits in general, see NASA’s What is a Space Suit and Wikipedia’s Space Suit. To read the detailed specifications of the MACES, click here.

PLANS FOR THE WINNING SOLUTIONS

NASA is ideally looking for Solutions that are comprised of technologies at a minimum Technical Readiness Level (TRL) of level 4, such that the Solution can be tested within 1 year and fully implemented within 3 years. However, for breakthrough innovations, NASA will consider Solutions that are at a lower TRL and therefore a longer implementation timeline.

NASA will consider collaborating with winners and/or other competitors, subject to NASA rules and regulations for contract procurement.

Prizes

The challenge offers up to $30,000 USD in prizes to innovative solutions for long duration waste management in a microgravity environment. NASA will award up to three prizes for the best ideas.

more details and continued at link - https://herox.com/SpacePoop/guidelines

morningsong	Yeah, not only can't they hear you scream in space, ain't a porta potty in sight. Well I don't know why NASA is even trying, they've just been told by the LA Times, iirc, that going to Mars is impossible for humans, but a trip to Titan would be better. [Edited 11/29/16 11:02am]
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morningsong	purplethunder3121 said: This guy's working on it! Poop pays.
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morningsong	Now why did that scene of Matt Damon's dilemna pop into my head from The Martian? They've got to save it if they need to plant potatoes. I wasn't joking about there's money in poop. I was working at a convention here that was hosting a worldwide Waste Managment construction and management event. I had no idea just how big of a business it is, literally.
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RodeoSchro	Sounds like y'all want to be the Number 1 company in the Number 2 business.
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morningsong	RodeoSchro said: Sounds like y'all want to be the Number 1 company in the Number 2 business. Nah, I plan on being a long ways downwind as I watch what they come up with.
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morningsong	I'd still say no. Too risky. But on Mars, with no cows I guess the matt damon method is an option.
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morningsong	Not much of a fuel source for such a mission, but I would think they could incinerate it somekind of way that isn't a fire hazard. I know they do not want to leave a trail of garbage behind them, no more than can be helped, especially the type of garbage that carries so many organisms, ie bacteria.
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morningsong	Interesting info starting at 4:53.
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Challenge Overview

Background

Prizes

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Stillsuit image