NASA WILL REWARD YOU IF YOU DESIGN A TOILET THAT WORKS ON THE MOON
THE LUNAR LOO CHALLENGE
NASA is seeking help in building a toilet that works on the moon to ensure that astronauts can go about their business when they visit the lunar service. On Thursday, NASA issued a call asking for ideas that might help create the ultimate space toilet. It was termed as the Lunar Loo Challenge.
As expected, NASA is giving a hefty reward for the idea. The winner of the space toilet challenge can win AUD 51,000 or USD 35,000 for the top concept. If you are wondering how NASA has never designed a toilet for space, then you should know that space toilets are already in use at the International Space Station. But the problem is that they are designed for microgravity only.
The new toilets NASA is seeking ideas for must work on the moon, which means they must work in lunar gravity. For those who are unaware, lunar gravity is about one-sixth of Earth’s gravity. Hence, waste moves a lot differently on the moon.
The new toilet should not just work on the moon; it should function in lunar gravity as well as microgravity. It should also adhere to a set of strict specifications. The mass of the toilet should be less than 15 kilograms as per Earth’s gravity, and it should not occupy a volume of more than 0.12-meter cubes. The noise level also has to be 60 decibels, and it should need less than 70 watts of power. It should also accommodate male and female users of different sizes and shapes.
Explaining the challenge by NASA to create a toilet that works on the moon, the project manager for the Lunar Loo Challenge in the HLS Crew Compartment Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre, Mike Interbartolo said, “While we may know how to make space toilets, we recognize that there are a lot of innovations going in waste management from the no-flush toilet to waterless toilets and more. So, we wanted to expand our knowledge base by using this challenge to find the unknowns that might be out there. 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.”
The NASA challenge has also specified that the toilet that should work on the moon must also be designed as such that if there is a system failure, the astronauts should not get exposed to vacuum or any waste.
This challenge by NASA has been as popular as NASA’s partneship with SpaceX or the Space Balloon idea that was in the news just a few days back.
If you are under 18 and you want to submit ideas for a toilet that works on the moon, you can be considered for a Junior category award as well as NASA recognition.
