In space, no one can hear you poop.
But that doesn't mean it isn't a health and hygiene issue for astronauts. That's why NASA asked the public for ideas to help astronauts deal with their Number 1 and Number 2 problems, as part of the NASA Space Poop Challenge.
The competition challenged creative minds to come up with ways for astronauts to manage personal waste in space while ditching the traditional diaper. The low-tech, temporary solution isn't meant for long-term situations. Instead, NASA wanted to find a way for astronauts to dispose of urine and feces for up to 144 hours — or six days.
Air Force Col. Thatcher Cardon, commander of the 47th Medical Group at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas, won the grand prize of $15,000 with his MACES Perineal Access and Toileting System, or M-PATS. It involves inserting different tools into a port in the front of the space suit to collect an astronaut's waste in a hands-free — and mess-free — fashion.
Astronauts aren't normally in their space suits, known as the Modified Advanced Crew Escape Suit, or MACES, for six days, and part of that limitation is toileting, Cardon said.
"Right now, [NASA] is trying to plan for an emergency," he said. "You don't want to be in your space suit if you can help it."
However, if a spaceship is on the other side of the moon and a meteor puts a hole in the ship, Cardon said, astronauts may need to live in their suits until they can get back to Earth. In the future, a system like this could be used for longer space travel.
"If you're on Mars walking around, you'd have to run back to the bathroom every time," he said. "If you can handle that in your suit, it opens a lot of options."
Air Force Col. Thatcher Cardon, commander of the 47th Medical Group at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas, came up with a design to win the NASA Space Poop Challenge.
Photo Credit: Courtesy photo
Cardon tapped into his experience as a flight surgeon and his interest in space to come up with a method to help astronauts in case they need to be in their suits for extended periods of time.
He spoke with Air Force Times about the challenge and how his system works. The interview was edited for clarity.
Q. How did you get involved with the Space Poop Challenge?
Col. Thatcher Cardon: I was looking at the news and saw it come up. I was instantly interested. It was kind of in my wheelhouse as a flight surgeon, so I thought maybe I could do that.
I read about the different requirements. You could leave the waste in the suit or take it out. I'm not going to leave it in the suit because that's just disgusting. It's just going to cause problems. I decided it was going to come out. Then I thought, where am I going to take it out? You can't take it out the back because you can't reach it. You can't really operate anything back there, especially in a space suit. I thought about laparoscopy surgery [that uses a thin tube through an incision]. I could design a valve that's like laparoscopy surgery and design items to go through the valve to perform that function. It all seemed to really flow after I came up with the valve introducer concept.
Col. Thatcher Cardon, a flight surgeon and commander of the 47th Medical Group, created a system for astronauts to extract waste from their space suits.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Col. Thatcher Cardon
Q: Can you tell us how the devices work, step by step?
A: If you were using, say, the female urine suction device, you would get the universal suction box and hook it to your suit. You would get out the introducer that had a female urine suction wand in it, unwrap that, hook it to the suction end of the suction box, and open the port on the front of your suit. With the safety valve, the air wouldn't come out of your suit. You put the introducer in that hole, and the introducer would prevent air escaping when the valve opens, and it would equalize the pressure. The wand would be there, and it would inflate or unfold, and you put that in position and turn on the suction pump and urinate into it. The urine would be sucked into the collection bag through the cup. When you're finished, you deflate the wand or fold it back up and pull back the introducer.
Q: We read that you were also inspired by the lingerie industry?
A: You could put on some underwear after urination, and a plunger would push the underwear out of the introducer, unfold and fold around the bottom. I was researching different ways to put on underwear and different kinds of underwear. I typed into Google "strapless underwear" and came across C-string underwear. It's a piece of plastic shaped like a C that clamps on the butt crack and on front. I got some and tore off the leopard skin lace and put on some terrycloth.
Col. Thatcher Cardon used lingerie as inspiration for space suit-friendly underwear.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Col. Thatcher Cardon
Q: How does the other device work?
A: The fecal containment and perineal hygiene device is basically an inflatable bed pan. Everything goes in [the suit valve] through an introducer. This device is made out of elastic material that wants to stay rolled up, like a poster. When you inflate it, the cushion on the bed pan inflates and makes space in the suit and unrolls into a bed pan-shaped device. You would use the toilet, and suction would help move the waste down deep into the device. When it deflates, it scrolls back up and you pull it out.
Q: How does everything stay in place and not spill?
A: There's zero gravity, so it's not going to spill. Gentle air flow moves balls of fluid and feces toward deeper parts of the pan.
You might have something that's stuck to your skin, and you can get that off by wiping or suction. The hygiene wand will help you with that as well.
Q: How did your Air Force experience help with this?
A: As a physician, I understand the importance of skin care and how badly feces and urine can damage your skin and threaten your life with infection. As a flight surgeon, we think about ambient pressure changes. What changes about a patient's body when they go up in altitude? That attunes me to the issues of managing a space suit. Also from my interest in space and watching videos and studying zero gravity, that all kind of came together to help me with a solution.
Q: Could this be used in other situations besides in space?
A: We're looking into that. I filed a patent and am going to speak at an incontinence engineering conference in April. We'll see what people think. One part that might have some application on Earth is the diaper solution [I created]. One of the problems with diapers is once you have them on, you can't take them off with the suit. You can take this off with your suit on. It might last a few days depending on how much you had to go. This diaper pulls off in a long strip — kind of a tear-away diaper. You pull it … through the port on the front of the suit.
Q: What will you do with the prize money?
A: I'm going to buy some tools. I've always wanted to learn how to do metal machining, and I could have made these prototypes out of aluminum [instead of plastic] if I had this machine before.
Charlsy is a Reporter and Engagement Manager for Military Times. Email her at cpanzino@militarytimes.com.
