Waste Of The Week (2)

Did you know that there were 96 bags of human waste that have been left on the moon following the Apollo space missions? And for all we know they are still there. With increased space exploration activity and commercial concerns offering space travel, although these seem merely to consist of rich people popping their heads through the Earth’s atmosphere, there are increasing concerns about the threat caused by the problem of disposing of human faeces on celestial orbs.

To try to solve the problem NASA have recently launched (successfully) the LunaRecycle Challenge, wittily dubbed as being for “the crater good” and described as a “two track, two-phase competition focused on the design and development of recycling solutions that can reduce solid waste and improve the sustainability of longer-term lunar missions”.

“There will be a need to consider”, it goes on “how various waste streams, including solid waste, can be minimized—as well as how waste can be stored, processed, and recycled in a space environment so that little or no waste will need to be returned to Earth”.

As well as scooping a $3m prize, the winner will rest content in the knowledge that their solution will be used on long space flights and at long-term outposts. No free trip to see if it works, though.