The American Space and Aviation Administration (NASA) has launched a competition to design a “toilet” for use on spacecraft going to Mars missions.
This is the latest campaign by the US space agency, operating in partnership with leading crowd-sourcing platform HeroX, based in Houston, Texas.
Known as the ‘Waste to Base Challenge’, it asks the public to provide inventive approaches to waste management and conversion in four categories – faecal waste, trash, foam packaging and carbon dioxide processing.
IDEAS ARE REQUESTED IN 4 CATEGORIES
Within the scope of the campaign called “Waste to Base Challenge”, competitors are asked to produce creative ideas in four categories regarding waste management. These categories are as follows: fecal waste, garbage, foam packaging and carbon dioxide processing.
THOUSAND DOLLARS WILL BE GIVEN TO WINNERS
There are multiple winners in each of four categories: trash, fecal waste, foam packaging material, and carbon dioxide processing.
The winners will be awarded a prize of $1,000 (£735) and judges will recognise four ideas as ‘best in class’ with an additional prize of $1,000.
In total the prize purse is worth $24,000 (£17,650), and the best ideas could later be commissioned and integrated into NASA missions.
The prize is open to anyone aged 18 or older, with both teams and individuals invited to take part — from any country where the US has no sanctions.
