In pictures: All you need to know about NASA's Lunar Loo Challenge
NASA is calling on the global community for toilet designs that will work both in microgravity and lunar gravity. For this, the space agency has tied up with HeroX to launch a Lunar Loo Challenge on Thursday. Interbartolo is the project manager for the Challenge. Space toilet technology has come some way from the grim Apollo years, when bags had to be taped to the astronaut’s buttocks in a setup that was not always as secure as might have been hoped. One mission transcript records an exchange between crew members: “Where did that come from?… There’s a turd floating through the air.” The international space station (ISS) features a large, industrial-looking Russian-made toilet that uses suction technology to overcome the challenge of pooing and peeing in microgravity. NASA, however, is seeking something that would function equally well on the lunar surface, where gravity is about a sixth of that on Earth. NASA is already working on approaches to miniaturize...