/inserts obligatory poo emoji
Ass-troplastic! Printing parts from p.. er... human waste
Researchers reckon some smart bacteria and a 3D printer could solve the twin challenges of transporting materials on a journey to Mars and dealing with all the solid waste generated by space-faring humans. The team from the University of Calgary have devised a process (PDF) called ‘Astroplastic’, which produces …
COMMENTS
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Monday 9th April 2018 20:17 GMT Anonymous Coward
The Matrix
It may be a sh*tty job but also the only job left for humans after the singularity.
When the AIs finally take over they will realize that humans are actually lousy batteries but great bioreactors, making the plastics they need to construct their physical forms.
So we develop sh*tty technology at our own risk.
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Friday 6th April 2018 18:32 GMT DNTP
Re: Plopellent
Anything is a rocket propellant if you can fire it out the back door, the faster the better of course. Now that's not as simple as loading the poor astros' up on Taco Bell and having them point ass out the rear airlock, but fermenting waste into methane and other VOCs, introducing oxygen, and letting it go bang in a rocket chamber might be a reasonably energetic chemical mix.
Given the practical size requirements of a spacecraft designed to support extended human life, I don't think the residents could produce enough solid waste to gain useful delta-v. And of course throwing chemically useful material out of a closed environmental system sounds like a waste of, umm... waste.
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Friday 6th April 2018 14:53 GMT Mephistro
Polyhydroxybutyrate
This was the stuff my Rötring sets were made of, and they had some shit-like smell.
Trivia: Butyric acid is produced in great amounts by gingko 's fruits, and that's the reason why they don't plant male and female ginkgo trees together. Except in my city, where the City Council fuckwits did just that and caused the main street to stink like an outhouse for 3 weeks each year.
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Friday 6th April 2018 15:58 GMT John Smith 19
Ho ho. But joking aside this addresses one of the Achilles heels of 3d printing.
Most of these systems like their raw material pristine and carefully prepared. NASA has done some work on this with converting old plastic packaging into raw material and making hand tools and containers but long term (on Mars say) you've got to make it from local raw materials.
Which is where this stuff comes in.
Fermentation is awesome so I'd like to raise a glass of another of the wonders of fermentation technology. Cheers.
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Friday 6th April 2018 16:29 GMT steelpillow
What a load of crap
The traditional spacefaring approach is to recycle human waste and carbon dioxide to grow fresh food, thus avoiding the need to lug a small supermarket, a nutritionist's dispensary and a nuclear-sub grade CO2 scrubber along with you.
This idea is, figuratively as well as literally, a load of crap.
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Saturday 7th April 2018 06:54 GMT John Smith 19
The traditional spacefaring approach..grow fresh food,
In an SF novel, maybe
IRL the only biological thing being recycled in the ISS is the 'naughts urine and sweat.
Everything else is either dried and sent back to Earth for analysis or dumped in a capsule and burned in reetnry.
There have been experiments to grow food on the ISS. None have AFAIK used human waste.
You are literally spouting bu***hit.
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Saturday 7th April 2018 08:48 GMT steelpillow
Re: The traditional spacefaring approach..grow fresh food,
"...in the ISS..."
You forget, my rather short-sighted friend, that the ISS is parked in Earth's front driveway. A Mars expedition will be away from home for a period measured in years.
Hydroponics for soil and LEDs for sunlight are already used on Earth for growing urban salads in old tunnels. Even the water has been through several sewage farm on its way to the supply pipe. And for crops that dislike hydroponics, my neighbouring farmer habitually takes processed solid human waste off the sewage farm's hands and drills it into the ground as fertiliser (I always pray the wind will blow the other way). Oh, yes, and it has all been done in the lab too. (Except the praying bit. Probably.) Just add a centrifuge (aka wheel) for gravity and your are on your foodie way to Mars.
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Sunday 8th April 2018 06:13 GMT John Smith 19
You forget, my rather short-sighted friend,
I'm quite well aware of the ISS's location. I'm also aware that zero g poses special problems.
And again, outside of an SF story what you're talking about has not been done, so no it's not "traditional" in space applications. It's (currently) just a fantasy.
In real life 'naughts basically eat pre prepared redimeals. This is unsustainable for long term settlement or cost effective exploration.
I agree we should be growing food in space and using it as a way to process human waste, but currently we don't. I expect much more closure for any settlement on Mars given it will be that much more expensive to supply it (and the 26 month delay between resupply).
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Friday 6th April 2018 16:33 GMT steelpillow
Ain't it th' truth...
"We have been struck by space junk and lost our air, Sir, everybody is now in space suits."
"Quick, print off some new structural plating and secure the hull."
"We don't have enough plastic for such a big repair, Sir."
"Get Cookie to brew a stinking hot curry, then."
"But we're all in space suits, Sir."
" * "
...
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Friday 6th April 2018 16:53 GMT JeffyPoooh
"Yes, 3D Printing is shit."
That's all that some people are capable of understanding when I attempt to engage them in a subtle discussion about the ridiculous claims made by some people that, "Someday soon all [anything] will be 3D Printed", where anything might be a complete TV, car, airplane or house emerging from the machine fully formed, running and warmed up*.
* their vision, not mine.
Come to think about it, a poo is probably the 2nd thing ever 3D Printed. The first was presumably an egg, or a baby.
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Friday 6th April 2018 18:30 GMT Anonymous Coward
When did this infantile word "poo" come into common use by adults - especially in media quotes? Presumably all the long-standing medical or slang words are considered too offensive for polite company? That perception does not fit with some of the other Anglo-Saxon words my god daughter and her friends also use.
To my mind it coincided with the social movement to declare anyone under-18 as a "child" - apparently denying them any responsibility for their own lives.
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