Astronauts may turn their poop into food

A peculiar idea that looks like science fiction. Researchers have devised a way to quickly turn feces into food using microbes to feed astronauts on long missions. By means of a space bioreactor a biomass rich in protein and fat will be produced. The equipment was designed by the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia - USA.

According to an article in Life Science in Space Research, biomass could be ingested directly or indirectly by astronauts, and despite the initial strangeness it causes, the idea comes to solve one of the biggest problems coming from NASA's planned missions to Mars or beyond. . After all, these missions can last months or even years. Aside from radiation problems to which astronauts may be exposed, food is the most important issue for planes in space to materialize.

Taking food for the entire mission time takes up a lot of space and increases the ship's fuel consumption. Farming food along the way would also consume plenty of water and be structurally complex. Hence the need for this more practical solution by reusing unusable waste from the astronauts' own bodies.

To ascertain this idea, researchers used artificial liquid and solid waste, commonly used in their administration tests, for missions. They then created a cylindrical device just over 1 meter long and 10 centimeters in diameter. There, feces come into contact with specific microbes that will break down that matter through anaerobic digestion, a process similar to human digestion.

This anaerobic digestion process is widely used in waste treatment today. In developing the project, two challenges were solved by biologists and engineers. The first came from the initial delay in the mass transformation process (solved with a technique now used in water purification), and the second was related to methane.

Methane, used in bacterial processing, would have the potential to cause fires in the spacecraft or space station. As a solution, we used the bacterium Methylococcus capsulatu, capable of "eating" methane. According to a team spokesman, Christopher House, this option for feeding astronauts is quite efficient and faster than growing tomatoes and potatoes.

Astronauts could turn waste into food via TecMundo