NASA Will Pay $35,000 to Design Toilet That Works on the Moon

NASA is looking for someone who can help them design a toilet that can be used on the moon. The agency is offering up to $35,000 to whoever can come up with an idea.

Special toilet

NASA has announced that they want to send humans to the moon again, and their goal will be met by 2024. Since astronauts will have to use the toilet during their moon mission, NASA is looking for a special toilet that will work in space.

NASA will need a toilet that will work both in space and once they land on the moon. There is zero gravity in space and the gravity on the moon is sixth of Earth's gravity, so the toilet must be good enough to adjust on both.

The design guidelines were posted by HeroX and NASA, and the space agency is encouraging anyone to develop the much-needed space toilet that meets the criteria. The first female astronaut to travel to the moon will be included in the mission. so the toilets should be able to accommodate both men and women, according to CNN.

Bonus points will be given to anyone who can design a toilet that can capture vomit without the crew members having to put their heads in.

According to the guidelines, the toilets should be able to support the crew members for 14 days and it should also be able to transfer the waste to storage and dispose of it properly outside the vehicle.

The toilet design should help conserve water and it should also prevent odors and other contaminants from spreading.

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The space toilets should be easy to maintain and easy to clean. There should also be a turnaround time of five minutes or less before another crew member can use it. The power used should be 70 watts or less and it should make less noise.

The space toilets should weigh less than 33 pounds and it should be less than 12 cubic meters in volume. It will be weighed and measured on Earth to see if it is suitable for space because the area in the vehicle will be limited for it.

The grand prize is $20,000, the second-place winner will get $10,000 and the third-place winner will get $5,000. The deadline for submitting the designs is August 17 and the winners will be announced in October 2020.

Moon mission on 2024

Back in May 2019, NASA announced that they would go back to the moon and the program is named Artemis.

The first mission of NASA, Artemis 1, will be a flight test of the Space Launch System or SLS megarocket and the Orion crew capsule. If the Artemis 1 mission goes well, Artemis will carry humans to the moon. Artemis 1 will launch this November 2020, as reported by SpaceNews.

On March 26, 2019, Vice President Mike Pence announced that NASA's goal of returning humans to the moon by 2028 was not good enough and it should be done by 2024. He made the remarks at the meeting of the National Space Council in Huntsville, Alabama.