by Marie Kauna – EMTV Online, Port Moresby
With future plans to land human beings in Mars by 2030, NASA is planning to identify ways that could turn human waste into usable products, including vitamins, food and plastics.
The planning scope identifies that while on their long term space missions, the astronauts may as well need necessities to sustain them and food is one of them.
Recently, NASA funded roughly $200, 000 to researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina, to identify how human waste can be turned into food to sustain the astronauts on their long term space missions.
While both urine and breathed-out carbon dioxide are identified to be useful for creating new usable items that can be used, the research team is engineering yeast to produce this things abroad.
In explaining this, Professor Mark Blenner, a professor of Clemson University said, “a particular strain of yeast can be genetically manipulated to create polymers, or plastics, used for 3D printing as well as Omega 3s, which lower heart disease risk and protect skin and hair”.
The research plan is underway and hopes to be successfully completed after three years of study and research. If successful, the plan of turning human wastes into usable products like vitamins, food and plastics will eventuate.
