You can tell we're getting into late-stage science when these are the problems that scientists are struggling to solve:
On the surface of the Moon, there are not only rocks, dust, and forgotten landers: there are also 96 bags of human faeces, urine, and vomit that Apollo astronauts left behind to lighten the weight of their spacecraft. Half a century later, NASA is looking for a solution to this type of "biological legacy." And it's willing to pay up to $3 million for anyone who proposes the right technology to do it.
The task is called — creatively! — the "LunaRecycle Challenge," and alas, submissions for it just closed, so if you wanted to propose a planetary poop remediation scheme, you've missed your chance.
Still, folks had some great ideas. Here are the best of them (and yes, we censored the language for you):
There were a lot of suggestions to the effect of "shoot it out of a potato cannon," though one fellow threw some cold water on that idea:
Finally, the best and most sensible option:
If all else fails, they can just go the Matt Damon route and use the stuff to grow outer space potatoes!
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