Scientists say it could be potential to interrupt down square and fluid human waste in microbial reactor to grow food on future place missions .
The adorable study , release inLife Sciences in Space Research , was led by a team from Penn State University in Pennsylvania . They were investigating whether astronauts on missions to Mars or elsewhere could use their own waste to provide energy to originate nutrient .
" We envision and tested the concept of simultaneously treating astronauts ' wastefulness with microbes while producing a biomass that is edible either directly or indirectly look on safety concern , " Christopher House from Penn State , a co - source on the sketch , enjoin in astatement . " It ’s a piffling strange , but the conception would be a little turn like Marmite or Vegemite where you ’re eat a smear of ' microbial sludge . ' "
Currently on the International Space Station ( ISS ) , US astronauts recycle their weewee ( the Russiansdon’t ) , but solid waste is sent to burn up in Earth ’s atmosphere . While it might be a spot flagrant , it turns out that unanimous waste could in reality be pretty useful if you ’re not near Earth .
In their research , the team did n’t use actual human wastefulness , but alternatively used an unreal solid and fluid waste often used for waste management tests . They put this inside a cylinder 1.2 meters ( 4 feet ) long , thick enough to fit on a space vehicle , inside which bug broke it down via anaerobiotic digestion ( without atomic number 8 ) .
During the digestion process , they feel that methane was produced , which could grow another microbe calledMethylococcus capsulatusthat ’s used in animal provender . From this , they produced aM. capsulatusthat was 52 pct protein and 36 percent fat , which could be a food source for human .
They were also able to increase the pH grade and temperature to grow two as alimentary microbe , Halomonas desiderataandThermus aquaticus , thus also removing any harmful pathogen .
“ Based on the results of the discipline … microbic growth is a speedy option for the production of Modern foodstuff from the liberated nutrients , ” the team writes in their paper .
Whether or not spaceman will be feed their “ substantial waste material ” into a microbic nuclear reactor on future space missions , well , we ’ll allow for that up to NASA to decide .
