Want to help astronauts poop on the go in space? NASA may have $30,000 for you

President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants humankind to explore the entire solar system by the end of the 21st century. President Obama has called for the U.S. to send a manned mission to Mars by the 2030s.

But before any of those lofty goals can be reached, NASA needs to take care of business — literally.

With most activity in space taking place within 250 miles of the planet’s surface nowadays, astronauts don’t have to worry too much about going to the bathroom, according to Quartz. Indeed, most space voyagers simply wear diapers during launches, per Time. If they make it to the International Space Station, there are two toilets available that are legendary for how difficult they can be to use, but they’re still preferable to the experiences of earlier astronauts, who simply had bags strapped to their orifices to collect anything that came out. According to Space.com, those bags would sometimes leak and even cause equipment to malfunction.

But if humans are going to spend extended periods of time, especially in “deep space,” away from Earth, NASA is going to need to provide a way for them to relieve themselves on the go, and diapers quickly become not only gross but unsanitary and potentially unhealthy after more than one day.

So that’s why the space agency is asking the public’s help in designing a waste removal system that can be integrated into a typical spacesuit and hold waste in microgravity for up to 144 hours, or six days. If someone can submit a design that fits the agency’s parameters, they’ll win $30,000, according to the project’s page on Hero X.

Those parameters, though, are highly specific, which you would expect from a team at NASA. If you’re at all squeamish though, the nitty-gritty details are a little graphic.

For one, a winning design must be hands-free and usable when an astronaut is “moving, bending, and/or seated and strapped into a chair.”

For another, a design must be able to store up to a liter of urine per day, 80 milliliters of menstrual fluid over six days and 75 milliliters or 75 grams of fecal matter. As the contest’s guidelines so delicately put it, “Fecal matter may range from liquid to solid, but the Solution is not required to handle uncontrollable, ongoing diarrhea.”

But as disgusting as that sounds, the problem is no joke. In a video accompanying the contest’s Hero X page, astronaut Rick Mastracchio explains that diapers, if left on too long, could cause infection and potentially sepsis, which could threaten astronauts’ lives, even if they have enough air and food.

The contest is slated to close Dec. 20. The prize money can be split among up to three different ideas, which NASA wants to begin testing within the next year.

This story was originally published November 30, 2016 at 7:06 PM with the headline "Want to help astronauts poop on the go in space? NASA may have $30,000 for you."