Astronauts used to have a glorified profession but now #NASA wants "em to eat #poop? - http://clapway.com/2015/08/20/nasa-receives-200000-to-turn-human-poop-into-space-food-322/

NASA has been doing a lot of weird things in regards to what astronauts may be eating while they’re out in space, but this newest idea takes the cake. In a recent blog post, NASA announced that it received a $200,000 grant that would allow the agency to research how they might be able to use human poop as a reusable food source.

NASA’s Innovation Engine

This news comes from NASA’s decision to select eight university-led studies that would explore and research various innovative technologies that would help propel America’s space program further along its path.

Among the various technologies were proposals for how to tackle areas of solar cell operations in scenarios involving high temperature, atmosphere entry, synthetic biology, and “dynamic tensegrity-based space structures.” Structures with tensegrity properties would be able to maintain mass with various changes in tension and compression.

“These early career researchers will provide fuel for NASA’s innovation engine,” said Steve Jurczyk, an associate admin of NASA’s Space Technology Directorate.

Learn more about NASA here!

So, What About the Poop?

NASA doesn’t refer to this program in terms quite so blunt. Instead, NASA is calling this the Synthetic Biology for Recycling Human Waste into Food, Nutraceuticals, and Materials: Closing the Loop for Long-Term Space Travel. Try saying that five times fast.

Mark Blenner of Clemson University in South Carolina is heading the project, and it’s just another idea NASA has to help solve how astronauts will maintain a sustainable supply of food during deep space missions.

NASA isn’t the first organization to consider repurposing human waste. Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates helped fund a water filtration system that turns human excrement into safe, drinkable water.

Preferable (?) Alternative Methods

Expedition 44 recently ate part of the second harvest of crop they’ve been growing on the Russian segment. This project is called veg-01, and the idea is that astronauts will be able to grow their own fresh produce while in space through the use of pillows. Astronauts plant these pillows, and in about 33 days they will have fresh produce to eat. So far the first taste-testing began earlier this week, and went over well. Astronauts aboard the ISS ate half of the harvest and sent the rest back for a second round of tests back at NASA headquarters.

Find more about NASA’s space gardening here.

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NASA Receives $200,000 to Turn Human Poop Into Space Food

Space Gardening: NASA"s Plan for Sustainable Food - http://clapway.com/2015/08/08/nasa-sustainable-food-in-space-101/

On Friday NASA took to their blog to let everyone know that crew members of Expedition 44 would be eating food grown that was grown in space on August 13.

Space Food

As odd as eating space food might sound, this is represents significant progress towards helping NASA better equip its astronauts during long-duration space mission. Mars is a three month trip away, and that doesn’t include time spent studying the planet or the return trip. What this means is that researchers need to find a way to sustain food supplies while crews would be away for such a lengthy time.

The Expedition 44 crew, which includes NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, will be sampling red romaine lettuce from the “veggie plant” growth system on the International Space Station (ISS). They will consume half of the harvested lettuce, while packaging the other half to be sent back to Earth for proper study and research.

NASA believes that having fresh foods available to crew will have a variety of benefits.

“Having fresh food like these available in space could have a positive impact on people’s moods and also could provide some protection against radiation in space,” said Dr. Ray Wheeler, head of NASA’s Advanced Life Support at Kennedy Space Centre.

NASA’s Sustainable Food Project is Called Veg-01

In the initial experiment, NASA used the Veg-01 to study how naturally grown veggies would work in orbit. Planting the seeds in “pillows”, the scientists then began to study the performance of the plant growth facility back in May 2014.

Expedition 39 was the first crew to activate the pillows and begin to care for them, with flight engineer Steve Swanson being the main person in charge of the project.

In October 2014, the plants were harvested and transported back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center so the plants could be studied due to safety concerns.

A second batch of pillows were flown back to the ISS, and were activated 15 months later in July 2015. This is the batch of plants that will be harvested and consumed by astronauts aboard the ISS before being flown back down to Earth to be further studied.

Reaping the Benefits

Alexandra Whitmire, a Behavioral Health and Performance Research scientist for NASA, believes that having fresh vegetables aboard future space missions will have psychological benefits in addition to nutritional benefits. Whitmire is involved with studying the possible psychological risks that might be involved on a mission to Mars.

Dr. Gioia Massa, a NASA payload scientist, supports Whitmire’s idea.

“Besides having the ability to grow and eat fresh food in space, there also may be a psychological benefit,” said Massa.

What types of psychological benefits fresh food may have on astronauts isn’t quite clear yet, but NASA will be continuing to learn more about the project as its plans for a manned mission to Mars becomes closer to a reality.

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UNTIL SPACE FOOD TAKES, TRY TRAINING YOUR DIET

Space Gardening: NASA"s Plan for Sustainable Food

#Complex #physics would be needed for #NASA to #launch this #Jupiter #windbot mission. - http://clapway.com/2015/07/23/nasa-looking-into-sending-fleet-of-windbots-to-jupiter-245/

How does one monitor the weather patterns of a planet that’s hundreds of millions of miles away? NASA postulates that the answer is ‘windbots’.

Uh, Windbots?

The idea is based on using Jupiter’s stormy atmosphere to our advantage by using its incredible winds to actually power the space probes indefinitely. That is to say, for at least a very long time.

“One could imagine a network of windbots existing for quite some time on Jupiter or Saturn, sending information about ever-changing weather patterns,” said Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) engineer Adrian Stoica.

The JPL team has recently been awarded $100,000 to help fund the research on how to get a project like this up in the air. The thought is that sending these probes out will help astronomers not only get a closer look at the atmosphere of these gas giants, but to also gain a deeper understand of our own planet’s weather.

How do we get the ball rolling?

Just like any other space probe, NASA needs to figure out a way for the windbot to be entirely self-reliant. This continuously proves to be a difficult task since each planet’s atmosphere and environment typically differ from each other in a radical fashion. The JPL research team will be figuring out how to harness Jupiter’s wind, temperature changes, and magnetic field to help accomplish this goal.

NASA’s last attempt at gathering meaningful data from the gas giant was with the Galileo probe. Unfortunately, the probe was only able to send a few hours of data back to NASA before it was lost in Jupiter’s violent atmosphere. This new probe would need to be able to maintain a safe height by bobbing similar to a fishing float or bobber, though JPL references dandelion seeds as a more proper example.

“[Dandelion seeds] rotate as [they] fall, creating lift, which allows [them] to stay afloat for a long time, carried by the wind,” said Stoica.

What is NASA hoping to accomplish?

Once the new windbots are all set to to fly, their mission will be simple in theory: explore Jupiter’s atmosphere. Using the sensors attached to the body of the probe, it will send information about turbulent weather, which NASA hopes will help scientists better understand extreme weather patterns back on Earth, such as hurricanes.

As of right now research is just getting underway, and NASA currently has no scheduled missions that would utilize windbots, but there is a time and place for everything.

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NASA Looking Into Sending Fleet of Windbots to Jupiter