Pooping in a Spacesuit is Just as Crappy as it Sounds
Among all the other issues astronauts have when they go to space, one of the biggest ones seems to be going to the bathroom.
When astronauts travel to space they can be stuck in their spacesuit for hours on end, sometimes days, and without gravity, using the john can be a tricky situation. The U.S. space agency is stumped when it comes to this bathroom issue and are offering a $30,000 reward for anyone who can come up with a solution to this poopy problem.
NASA seeks proposed solutions for fecal, urine, and menstrual management systems to be used in both launch and entry suits for up to 144 hours. A lot of the time, astronauts have very long duration tasks that they attend to outside of the space station and we all know that when you gotta go, you gotta go.
The bathrooms in the space station use directed airflow through a special device that pulls poop and urine away from the body. Basically what NASA is looking for is a high-tech diaper for the astronauts to wear similar to the toilets in the station.
If you think you can solve NASA's Space Poop Problem, visit the HeroX crowdsourcing website to input your ideas.