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Author
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Topic: Students test making tools from astronaut poo
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Skythings
Member Posts: 243
From:
Registered: Jun 2014
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posted 08-30-2018 09:20 AM
   
Some local Canadian students flew in a zero-g aircraft to test 3D printing tools made from recycled astronaut waste. A pair of University of Calgary students are back on Earth after taking their plastic poop project to the skies.Schulich School of Engineering student Alina Kunitskaya, and Sam Wilton-Clark, a health sciences student, were part of the team that won a gold medal in December at the International Genetically Engineered Machine Foundation's giant jamboree in Boston for their work on turning feces into tools for astronauts as a way of reducing the amount of equipment they'd need to carry for a colonization of Mars. "We came up with an idea of using genetically engineered bacteria to convert astronauts' fecal waste into a plastic product that can be used in a 3D printer to print useful items, for example tools for astronauts on Mars," Kunitskaya told the Calgary Homestretch. |
Lunar rock nut
Member Posts: 911
From: Oklahoma city, Oklahoma U.S.A.
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 08-31-2018 05:34 AM
Now that is incredibly awesome. |
moorouge
Member Posts: 2454
From: U.K.
Registered: Jul 2009
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posted 08-31-2018 10:07 AM
There is nothing new in putting human waste to use to aid space missions. A long time ago it was suggested that this might one day be heard - "Houston. Discovery. Be advised de-orbit burn will be delayed for twenty four hours. The crew are constipated." No — this wasn't said, but it might have been. There were plans to turn sewage and human waste into rocket fuel. The Rocket Research Corporation received a NASA contract in the late sixties to develop an integrated waste management/rocket propulsion system. It was, in fact, successfully tested leading to hopes of application on long duration missions. Even more recent is a suggestion that astronauts on their way to Mars might smear the waste products produced on the outside of the spacecraft. It seems that human faeces are an excellent protection against the radiation found in space. |
YankeeClipper
Member Posts: 617
From: Dublin, Ireland
Registered: Mar 2011
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posted 09-01-2018 02:04 AM
OK you're making that last part up too, right? I can only imagine the PR / optics of an excrement covered flight vehicle orbiting Mars. It would make the interior of the Apollo 8 Command Module look like a sterile Clean Room! |
moorouge
Member Posts: 2454
From: U.K.
Registered: Jul 2009
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posted 09-02-2018 02:28 AM
No, not made up, all perfectly true apart from the first bit about a delayed re-entry burn.
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