Here's NASA's strange assignment for innovators: Build us a lunar toilet.
The agency is prepping for the Artemis program, which will return astronauts to the moon in 2024. And it is asking innovators to design a toilet that is easy to maintain and is able to reduce mass, volume and power consumption.
Launched in partnership with HeroX, a crowdsourcing platform for innovations, the NASA Tournament Lab and its Human Landing System program are calling the competition "Lunar Loo." The eight-week challenge is asking innovators across the world to submit their novel design concepts for compact toilets that can operate in both microgravity and lunar gravity.
To be clear, space toilets do exist. In fact, the International Space Station is getting a new one this year. But those are designed for microgravity only, and do not work in lunar gravity.
"As NASA astronauts prepare to set their boots on the Moon in 2024, we're turning to the global network of problem solvers to design the next-generation lunar toilet," said project manager for the Lunar Loo Challenge Mike Interbartolo in a statement. "As we prepare for this extraordinary event, we can't forget about the ordinary needs of our astronauts."
The agency also noted that it hopes to attract radically new and different approaches to the problem of human waste capture and containment.
The competition, which is also open to those under the age of 18, will award $35,000 in prizes to the authors of the three most compelling design concepts.
