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. ||||| The Space Poop Challenge sought designs for a system that could collect human waste for up to six days, routing it away from the body without the use of hands 
 
 Astronauts wear adult diapers under their suits in case they need to pee or poop on spacewalks, but what happens if there’s an emergency and they have to stay in their suit for several days? That was the question Nasa posed to members of the public in its Space Poop Challenge, and the winners of the contest have just been announced. 
 
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 Nasa invited people to submit designs for a system that could collect human waste – faeces, urine and menstrual fluid – for up to six days, routing it away from the body without the use of hands. Critically it had to work in microgravity, where solids, fluids and gases typically float. 
 
 “Spaceflight is not always glamorous,” said Nasa astronaut Rick Mastracchio in a video announcing the contest. “People need to go the bathroom even in a spacecraft. How is this waste treated such that it does not harm the astronaut or even kill them? Given enough time, infection or even sepsis can set in.” 
 
 The winning idea, awarded $15,000 of the $30,000 prize pot, was submitted by air force officer, flight surgeon and family practice physician Thatcher Cardon. 
 
 He drew on his experience with keyhole surgery to come up with a small airlock in the groin area of the suit, with a variety of items including bedpans and diapers that could be inserted through a small hole and expanded. 
 
 “I mean, they can even replace heart valves now through catheters in an artery. So it should be able to handle a little bit of poop!” he told NPR. 
 
 Such a waste management system is a necessary precaution as Nasa starts to send people beyond the low-Earth orbit of the International Space Station – for example to the moon or Mars. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nasa astronaut Rick Mastracchio talks about pooping in space. 
 
 “Now Nasa is going beyond low-Earth orbit into lunar orbit and beyond, we have to figure out ways to keep astronauts alive and healthy for many days after a major malfunction, such as loss of vehicle pressure,” Mastracchio said. 
 
 He described a scenario where the spacecraft has a technical problem that causes a loss of cabin pressure. “The crew will need to quickly put on their space suits to protect themselves from the vacuum of space.” 
 
 Second place and $10,000 went to a team of three from Houston, made up of doctor Tony Gonzales, dentist Katherine Kin and University of Houston engineering professor Stacey Louie. They developed something called an “air-push urinary girdle”, which uses air to push urine or menstrual waste down and through an exit tube. 
 
 His team said the design could also have applications on Earth. 
 
 “I think it could be used in hospital settings, nursing homes ... anywhere where incontinence is a problem,” team captain Gonzales told the Guardian. 
 
 British designer Hugo Shelley came in third, winning $5,000 with his catheter-based design (“It’s an external catheter; trying to insert an internal catheter would be horrendously stressful to do in space,” he told the Guardian), combined with a mechanism for compressing, sealing and sanitizing solid waste and storing it in the back of the suit. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest British designer Hugo Shelley came third, winning $5,000. Photograph: Nasa 
 
 When he’s not building waste management systems for astronauts, Shelley develops electronic tricks for magicians and builds product prototypes for startups. 
 
 His proposed design uses electronics and mechanical elements to move liquids and gases. “In microgravity you have to rely on capillary action, pumps or fans. That’s what the larger waste disposal systems [on the spacecraft] use. Part of the design takes elements of that and miniaturizes it.” 
 
 Nasa will now incorporate elements of the ideas into prototypes that might eventually be tested aboard the International Space Station. 
 
 “It might be the closest I ever get to being in space,” Shelley said. “Although I still haven’t given up hope of being an astronaut.” ||||| 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
– 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.)