Human spaceflight has been plagued by waste. From urine-soaked spacesuits to floating turds, the history of human spaceflight is flush with dirty (and hilarious) anecdotes of dealing with waste in space. Engineers seem to have a handle on #1 & #2 as we explore low Earth orbit, but the future of deep space exploration hinges on our ability to overcome a heaping pile of physiological, biological and engineering problems. So how will we do it? WMFE’s space reporter Brendan Byrne has been exploring the history of the space toilet for a new book and presents a brief history of the galactic commode – and ideas for new hardware that will boldly take our poop to places like the moon and Mars.
This presentation is from Nerd Nite Orlando.