ONE of space travel鈥檚 most pressing but least known problems鈥攚hat to do
with dirty underwear鈥攃ould soon be solved. Russian scientists are
designing a cocktail of bacteria to digest astronauts鈥� cotton and paper
underpants. The resulting methane gas could be used to power spacecraft, they
claim.
鈥淭his will be a revolution in the science of biodegradation,鈥� says Vyacheslav
Ilyin, project director and head of the microbial ecology laboratory at the
Russian State Research Centre鈥檚 Institute for Biological and Medical Problems in
Moscow.
The disposal unit will be able to process plastic, cellulose and other
organic waste aboard a spacecraft. 鈥淐osmonauts identify waste as one of the most
acute problems they encounter in space,鈥� says Ilyin. Each astronaut produces an
average of 2.5 kilograms鈥攐r up to 9 litres鈥攐f uncompressed waste a
day. To keep waste to a minimum, they are forced to wear underwear for up to a
week at a time. Onboard laundry facilities are rare in space, although the
Russian space station Mir does contain a shower.
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Aboard Mir, waste is stored in sealed containers until a Progress supply
module arrives with fresh supplies. Waste is then transferred to the module,
which burns up and disintegrates as it re-enters the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere. But
Progress modules only call about twice a year. Meanwhile, stored waste builds up
on the station, taking up valuable space and posing a potential health threat to
crew.
The search for the most suitable combination of microbes is expected to take
up to a decade. Many of the strains are stored in national and international
collections. The researchers aim to have the complete microbial disposal unit
ready by 2017, when Russia hopes to launch its first crewed interplanetary
mission, possibly to Mars.