NASA has been doing a lot of weird things in regards to what astronauts may be eating while they’re out in space, but this newest idea takes the cake. In a recent blog post, NASA announced that it received a $200,000 grant that would allow the agency to research how they might be able to use human poop as a reusable food source.
NASA’s Innovation Engine
This news comes from NASA’s decision to select eight university-led studies that would explore and research various innovative technologies that would help propel America’s space program further along its path.
Among the various technologies were proposals for how to tackle areas of solar cell operations in scenarios involving high temperature, atmosphere entry, synthetic biology, and “dynamic tensegrity-based space structures.” Structures with tensegrity properties would be able to maintain mass with various changes in tension and compression.
“These early career researchers will provide fuel for NASA’s innovation engine,” said Steve Jurczyk, an associate admin of NASA’s Space Technology Directorate.
Learn more about NASA here!
So, What About the Poop?
NASA doesn’t refer to this program in terms quite so blunt. Instead, NASA is calling this the Synthetic Biology for Recycling Human Waste into Food, Nutraceuticals, and Materials: Closing the Loop for Long-Term Space Travel. Try saying that five times fast.
Mark Blenner of Clemson University in South Carolina is heading the project, and it’s just another idea NASA has to help solve how astronauts will maintain a sustainable supply of food during deep space missions.
NASA isn’t the first organization to consider repurposing human waste. Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates helped fund a water filtration system that turns human excrement into safe, drinkable water.
Preferable (?) Alternative Methods
Expedition 44 recently ate part of the second harvest of crop they’ve been growing on the Russian segment. This project is called veg-01, and the idea is that astronauts will be able to grow their own fresh produce while in space through the use of pillows. Astronauts plant these pillows, and in about 33 days they will have fresh produce to eat. So far the first taste-testing began earlier this week, and went over well. Astronauts aboard the ISS ate half of the harvest and sent the rest back for a second round of tests back at NASA headquarters.
Find more about NASA’s space gardening here.
