text: NASA is asking everyday terrestrials to come up with cosmic solutions to a very down-to-earth problem: how to deal with human waste when you’re trapped in a space suit for up to a week. 
   
   The American space agency has launched a competition for participants to invent a hands-free system that routes and collects waste away from the astronaut’s body for up to six days. Inventors have the chance of winning $30,000, and have until Dec. 20 to submit their best “space poop” ideas. 
   
   “I can tell you that space flight is not always glamorous,” said astronaut Rick Mastracchio, a veteran of Space Shuttle Soyuz, and Space Station missions speaking in a video promoting NASA’s call to action. “People need to go to the bathroom even in a spacecraft.” 
   
   During spaceflight astronauts can be in their suits for more than 10 hours at a time. But with NASA planning on sending humans deeper into space, future missions will require the advancement of new technology to keep the astronauts alive and well. 
   
   Currently, crews wear an absorbent diaper but these would not be suitable for flights longer than a day, according to a description on the contest’s website HeroX. While it goes without saying that nobody in their right mind would want to wear a diaper for a week, the issue is more than a matter of squeamishness, it’s a matter of life or death. 
   
   Mastracchio said it is vital that the waste needs to be treated otherwise it could harm or even kill the astronaut. “Given enough time, infection, and even sepsis can set in. This is the problem we are asking you to help us with.” 
   
   NASA said it aims to test the winning ideas in the next year and roll out successful systems in the next three. ||||| NASA vowed to award up to three $30,000 prizes for the most promising in-suit waste management systems When you've got to go, but you're out there in space, zipped up in a spacesuit, with no toilet in sight and a crew of other astronauts around, what do you do? 
   
   NASA has launched a contest for inventors to solve this uncomfortable issue, and promises to award $30,000 to the best "space poop" solutions. 
   
   Inventors have until December 20 to submit designs for a personalized waste-wicking system that will handle everything, hands-free, for a period of up to six days. 
   
   "The old standby solution consisted of diapers," said the description of contest details at www.herox.com/SpacePoop. 
   
   "However, the diaper is only a very temporary solution, and doesn't provide a healthy/protective option longer than one day." 
   
   Sometimes, astronauts have to wait even longer. The two men and one woman who packed themselves into a Russian Soyuz space capsule last week had to wait two full days between launching from Kazakhstan and arriving at the International Space Station. 
   
   The Soyuz is equipped with a portable toilet, which looks like an air-powered pee jug. 
   
   On future missions to deep space destinations like an asteroid or Mars, NASA suspects it could take up to 144 hours, or six days, to get to a proper toilet. 
   
   In emergency situations, astronauts may need to zip themselves into a fully pressurized, bulky orange spacesuit, complete with helmet and gloves. 
   
   "While sealed, it is impossible for an astronaut to access their own body, even to scratch their nose," NASA said. 
   
   That's where the inventors come in. Astronauts need some way to clear away urine, fecal matter and menstrual blood efficiently, or they risk infection. 
   
   The problem is that in weightlessness, fluids can blob up and stick to surfaces, while solids float in the air. 
   
   "You don't want any of these solids and fluids stuck to your body for six days," NASA said, recalling how easy babies can get diaper rash. 
   
   Currently, while at the International Space Station, astronauts use a toilet contraption that includes a vacuum and a tube to help evacuate fecal matter. 
   
   To urinate, they use a funnel attached to a hose that can be adapted for a sitting or standing position, and uses air to move urine away. 
   
   NASA vowed to award up to three $30,000 prizes for the most promising in-suit waste management systems. 
   
   The goal is to test them within a year and fully implement them within three years. 
   
   NASA says the first human missions to Mars could take place by the 2030s. 
   
   Explore further: Soyuz capsule docks with International Space Station ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| Why would you ever need to know? Because of the Space Poop Challenge, that’s why. It’s a $30,000 incentive prize for a NASA-worthy system for spacesuits that routes human waste away from the body, hands-free. It could be the difference between life and death for astronauts in emergency situations that require extended (like days) periods of time spent contained to their spacesuit. Check out the challenge guidelines to learn more about the details of this challenge, and read on for some interesting factoids about dealing with bodily functions in space. 
   
   Space is an extreme and unsafe environment even before you consider the issue of, um, using the bathroom. But that’s just it -- we have to consider that issue. So before you go running off to make space travel history by drumming up new solutions, let’s talk about the current situation in space. 
   
   
   
   There are two space-age toilets on the ISS, located in the Tranquility and Zvezda modules. The second commode was put in just a few years ago, after the first unit was having some problems. Effectively managing human waste is critical for the health and safety of astronauts in space. 
   
   
   
   Our terrestrial toilets use gravity to flush everything away, but doing your business in the weightlessness of outer space gets tricky. 
   
   So, how exactly does one go number one, or number two, in space? 
   
   The Amazing Zero-G John 
   
   The toilets on the ISS are so different from yours, astronauts actually need some supplemental potty training to figure them out. And they're astronauts. 
   
   Without getting into the nitty-gritty, let’s just say that relieving oneself in space these days is a lot better than it used to be. Today, going to the restroom in zero-g is a quick process, but it looks more complicated than using a car. Luckily, they get to practice on training toilets before blastoff (pun intended). 
   
   There seem to be a lot of steps involved, so you probably don't want to be in a hurry. Liquid and solid waste are handled differently: there's a somewhat normal-looking toilet seat, along with what's known as a “urine hose.” 
   
   The hole in the toilet seat is smaller than usual, so apparently, it can be a bit tough to get the alignment right at first. Women and men are equal here when it comes to number two, using the same setup, but urinating requires different … attachments. 
   
   Space toilets use suction instead of gravity, for both urine and solid waste. You don't really sit in space, because you don't weight anything, so astronauts need to either strap themselves in or use handles to hold themselves down. 
   
   You can actually check out a guided tour of the toilet cabin on the ISS, given by Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti: 
   
   Out of Sight, Out of Mind? 
   
   On Earth, we get to flush our waste away and never see it again (unless something goes horribly wrong). But on the ISS, it's not that simple. 
   
   Urine and solid waste are collected and dealt with separately. Urine and other waste water goes through a very advanced filtration and purification process, before it ends up being used again for - you guessed it - drinking water. In case you needed more proof, the space program really isn’t for the faint of heart. Think you could swing it? Before you answer, you should also know that the water they end up drinking is actually purer than the water most of us drink on a daily basis. I guess that's worth the view. 
   
   Solid waste ends up getting packed up, compressed and sent off to burn up in the atmosphere like a shooting star. Make a wish! 
   
   Astronauts try to take care of all their business on the space station, rather than in their spacesuits. But when nature calls on a spacewalk, they have to use the equivalent of an adult diaper for space travelers. 
   
   Wearing a diaper is a reasonable solution for short term waste management for launch, reentry, and spacewalks, but future long distance missions might require astronauts to remain in a protective suit for up to 6 days. That’s a long time no matter how you slice it, and a diaper is simply not a safe or sustainable waste management tool. NASA is working on this challenge themselves, but as we prepare our species for interplanetary travel, they could use some help from the crowd with these kinds of details! 
   
   The Space Poop Challenge 
   
   As hard as it is for astronauts to use the toilet in the pressurized environments like ISS, it is an even bigger challenge when you have to wear a spacesuit (particularly if you have to wear it for more than a few hours), This is why the Space Poop Challenge is offering up to $30,000 for the best ideas to create a system that will collect waste and route it away from an astronaut's body, hands-free, while wearing a spacesuit. Check out the Space Poop Challenge page to learn more, get registered, and take your place in the annals of space travel history! ||||| NASA has initiated a "Space Poop Challenge," and is calling on innovators to come up with new designs for a spacesuit waste management system. 
   
   Sometimes the "call of nature" is really urgent – and if you're in a spacesuit, you can't easily rush to the bathroom. 
   
   That's why NASA has created the "Space Poop Challenge." The agency is asking innovators to create fecal, urine and menstrual management systems for spacesuits, that would work for up to six days. Up to $30,000 in prize money is up for grabs. 
   
   NASA astronauts wear diapers to take care of their bodily needs while they're launching, landing or spacewalking. However, these diapers are only good for a few hours; sitting in poop, urine or menstrual fluid for more than that is bad for your health, and your backside, besides. [How to Pee in Space (and What to Do If the Toilet Breaks)] 
   
   "Future missions may require long-duration waste management for use by a pressurized suited crew member," NASA wrote in a statement on HeroX, a website where people or organizations can host incentive-based competitions. 
   
   "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 hours," according to the statement. "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 [proposed system] needs to take no more than five minutes [to set up and integrate with the spacesuit]." 
   
   Further complicating the challenge is the requirement that the system work in microgravity, in a pressurized spacesuit. This means would-be designers need to contend with floating water and debris that everybody really, really wants to keep far away from human orifices or vital spacesuit systems. 
   
   The new system will be designed for NASA's Modified Advanced Crew Escape Suit, an improvement on the orange spacesuit used for shuttle launches and landings. That suit is expected to be used by astronauts on the Orion spacecraft. 
   
   The submission deadline for the Space Poop Challenge is Dec. 20, and winners will be announced Jan. 31, 2017. You can see all the guidelines and rules on this website. https://herox.com/SpacePoop/ 
   
   Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. ||||| Published on May 8, 2015 
   
   ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti shows how to use the most unglamorous but often asked-about part of living on the International Space Station: the toilet. 
   
   
   
   A fan creates suction to avoid smells and floating waste. Solid waste is stored and put in cargo ferries to burn up when the spacecraft leaves the Space Station. The astronaut urine is recycled – into drinking water. 
   
   
   
   Follow Samantha via http://samanthacristoforetti.esa.int/ ||||| 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. 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 of 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. 
   
   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. 
   
   How do I win? 
   
   To be eligible for an award, the solution must, at minimum: 
   
   Keep urine and/or fecal waste away from a crew member’s body for a minimum of 144 hours while in a space suit 
   
   Operate in a microgravity scenario 
   
   Operate within a full launch and entry suit at an internal pressure of 4.3 PSID and 100% oxygen environment which cannot be opened for manual access within the 144 hour time period 
   
   Operate while a crew member is moving, bending, and/or seated and strapped into a chair 
   
   Manage at least one of the three following human wastes for up to 6 days Manage up to 1L per day of urine per crew member (based on planned liquid intake during mission) Manage up to 75 grams of fecal mass and 75mL fecal volume per crew member (based on planned food intake during mission). Fecal matter may range from liquid to solid, but the Solution is not required to handle uncontrollable, ongoing diarrhea. Manage up to 80 mL of menstrual fluid over 6 days 
   
   Require less than five minutes for a crew member to, on their own, set up and secure the Solution to their body, prior to, or along with, getting into their launch and entry suit. 
   
   Operate effectively for both men and women of varying size and weight within the range of 1% to 99% on the Airforce ANSUR anthropometric database. Please refer to the Resource Page and this document for ranges in relevant measurements for your solution, which might include, but not be limited to: waist circumference (24.2 to 43.5”), Buttock circumference (33.1 to 45.2”), Hip breadth, sitting (31.5 to 46.5”), Waist back (15.4 to 22”) and Waist depth (5.9” to 11.8”). 
   
   The Solution may include a variety of approaches, including, but not limited to: 
   
   Using different management systems for urine versus fecal versus menstruation output and/or males versus females or by size or weight 
   
   Integrating all hardware into one garment that is easy to don 
   
   Keeping collected urine and fecal matter inside the suit or routing it outside the suit, allowing for customization for each crew member, etc. 
   
   The judging panel will rank the eligible Solutions submitted against the following criteria: 
   
   Criteria Description Percent Importance Soundness and Technical Readiness of the design Likelihood that the Solution will work as described to satisfy the minimum requirements with a minimum of risk. This includes the technical readiness level (TLR) of the design. 20 Gas Conservation Effectiveness at ensuring the conservation of gas in the crew member’s suit 10 Health and Safety Level of health and safety the Solution will provide to the crew member including dryness and prevention of pain, infection and permanent injury 15 Suit Integrity Effectiveness ensuring the integrity of the crew member’s suit, including the number of entry/exit points required 15 Speed Ease and feasibility of integrating the Solution with the body and the suit within 5 minutes. 10 Ease of Use/ Constraints Ease of use given the constraints required for using (e.g., clean shaven, limitations on timing of waste elimination, requirement to be near a specific technology, etc.) 10 Comfort Level of physical, emotional, and psychological comfort the crew member will experience using the Solution, including while donning, moving around, and seated and strapped in 10 Ease of Incorporation Ease of incorporating into existing suits and vehicle, 5 Other Benefits Other benefits that the judges identify or the competitor points out that do not fall into the above categories. Could also include judge preferences, such as for simplicity. 5 
   
   Participation Eligibility: 
   
   The Prize is open to individuals, age 18 or older, private teams, public teams, and collegiate teams. Individual competitors and teams may originate from any country, as long as United States federal sanctions do not prohibit participation (see: https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Pages/Programs.aspx). If you are a NASA employee, a Government contractor, or employed by a Government Contractor, your participation in this challenge may be restricted. 
   
   Submissions must be made in English. All challenge-related communication will be in English. 
   
   No specific qualifications or expertise in the field of microgravity or waste management is required. Prize organizers encourage outside individuals and non-expert teams to compete and propose new solutions. 
   
   To be eligible to compete, you must comply with all the terms of the challenge as defined in the Challenge-Specific Agreement, which will be made available upon registration. 
   
   Intellectual Property 
   
   Innovators who are awarded a prize for their submission must agree to grant NASA a royalty free, non-exclusive, irrevocable, world-wide license in all Intellectual Property demonstrated by the winning/awarded submissions. See the Challenge-Specific Agreement, which will be made available upon registration, for full details on intellectual property. 
   
   Registration and Submissions: 
   
   Submissions must be made online (only), via upload to the HeroX.com website, on or before 11:59pm EST on December 20th, 2016. All uploads must be in PDF format. No late submissions will be accepted. 
   
   Selection of Winners: 
   
   Based on the winning criteria, prizes will be awarded per the weighted Judging Criteria section above. 
   
   Judging Panel: 
   
   The determination of the winners will be made by HeroX based on evaluation by relevant NASA specialists. 
   
   Additional Information
target: – Pooping in space "isn't glamorous, but it is necessary for survival," an astronaut explains—yet it's presenting quite a challenge for NASA. See, while the International Space Station has a pretty fancy toilet, an astronaut must wear a diaper during launch and landing activities or while spacewalking. But as NASA looks toward future missions in deep space, it's also looking for a way for astronauts to relieve themselves while remaining in their space suits for up to six days, reports Time. That's where you come in. The agency is offering a $30,000 prize in a "space poop challenge" if someone can create "a system inside a space suit that collects human waste for up to 144 hours and routes it away from the body, without the use of hands." There are plenty of stipulations. For example, the system "needs to take no more than five minutes [to set up]" as an astronaut might be forced to jump into their suit quickly in an emergency, per Space.com. While such a challenge might seem humorous, a solution "could be the difference between life and death," notes the contest website. "You don't want any of these solids and fluids stuck to your body for six days," NASA adds in a release. "Given enough time, infection, and even sepsis can set in," says astronaut Rick Mastracchio in a video. Inventors have until Dec. 20 to submit their entries. NASA plans to test the top entries next year, with a solution executed within three years. (A scientist thinks humans could get to Mars in a month.)