NASA hasn't figured out how to fix one space travel problem — offers $3m to anyone who can

NASA’s Apollo mission was one of the most important missions in the history of space exploration, but astronauts who had to collect rock samples had to dump all their trash on the Moon. Among other garbage, a total of 96 bags of human waste were also left on the Moon. As NASA is set to launch a long-term lunar expedition in 2026, the agency wants to make it as sustainable as possible. Hence it has offered a massive reward of $3 million to anyone who finds a solution to manage trash effectively in space as part of a competition, NASA reported in a press release.

At present, all the astronauts are trained with a pee-and-poop test to manage their bodily waste during their time in space, but this wasn't the case in the past when they had no option but to store or dump it in space. IFL Science explains that on the way to the Moon, the astronauts had to collect their urine in tanks and strap a bag to their anus to poop. These bags, along with discarded clothing, food packaging, and other waste materials from scientific experiments, all were stowed into bags and deposited on the Moon. The first photograph of the Moon, featuring Neil Armstrong, also shows a waste bag lying on the Moon soil.

To make sure that something like that isn't repeated and the astronauts recycle and use the waste to spend more time in space, NASA has launched the “LunaRecycle Challenge” to invite innovators who could solve this problem. In addition to that, as NASA plans to do longer missions on Moon, and Mars, it becomes even more crucial to design technologies that will help astronauts reuse the waste. Even if they take out the packaging and electronic waste, human waste is insanely aplenty and unavoidable.

“Operating sustainably is an important consideration for NASA as we make discoveries and conduct research both away from home and on Earth,” Amy Kaminski, program executive for NASA’s Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program, said in the press release. “With this challenge, we are seeking the public’s innovative approaches to waste management on the Moon and aim to take lessons learned back to Earth for the benefit of all.”

The competition will be held in two phases, according to the press release. The first phase, the “Prototype Build Track” will focus on designing and developing hardware components and systems for recycling solid waste on the lunar surface. The second phase, "The Digital Twin Track” will require the participating teams to design a virtual replica of a complete system for recycling solid waste streams into useful products. Interested scientists can register for the challenge by heading to this link.

Apart from being used in space, NASA also envisions a future for these designs where they will enable communities on Earth to recycle waste with higher efficiency. This approach isn't new since a lot of technology that we use in everyday life now, was once developed by NASA for astronauts.