Simply packing enough food to last for the entirety of the trip would be terribly inefficient and would leave space travelers in a tight spot if their return is delayed and they somehow run out of things to eat. Growing traditional foods onboard is also a tough sell due to the length of time it would take to grow and harvest it. Now, researchers from Penn State have come up with a novel alternative, and it starts with something astronauts will have no shortage of: poop.
You already know that astronauts recycle their own waste, particularly urine, which is filtered and turned into drinking water, but feces is a whole different ball game. Penn State scientists have developed a system that converts solid human waste into something not only edible, but nutritious as well.
“We envisioned and tested the concept of simultaneously treating astronauts’ waste with microbes while producing a biomass that is edible either directly or indirectly depending on safety concerns,” Christopher House, a professor of geosciences at Penn State, explains. “It’s a little strange, but the concept would be a little bit like Marmite or Vegemite where you’re eating a smear of ‘microbial goo.” – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]When it comes to alien hunting, astronomers have already done a pretty good job of checking out the planets in our own cosmic backyard. Sure, there might be some kind of alien space whale lurking under the ice of Enceladus, but generally speaking we know that there isn’t another Earth-like planet in our neck of the woods. But determining whether a distant planet in another star system supports life is a lot more difficult. Now, a team of researchers has come up with a new and possibly more effective way to detect extraterrestrial life from millions of miles away, and it’s all about gasses.
In a new paper published in Science Advances, researchers led by Joshua Krissansen-Totton of the University of Washington suggest that rather than searching for life itself we should be hunting for specific mixes of atmospheric gasses that couldn’t exist without the presence of life.
By closely studying the various mixes of gasses that exist in Earth atmosphere, and considering how life on other worlds might form even without oxygen, the team argues that by finding planets where different gasses exist in an unbalanced way we’ll be much closer to discovering life. – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]A couple of months back, a really, really weird asteroid flew through our Solar System. It looked nothing like any object humanity had ever spotted in space, and was moving might fast. First it was identified as a comet, then an asteroid, and most recently scientists have been wondering if maybe it was actually an alien spacecraft. Now, after spending hours listening to the strange visitor with powerful radio telescopes, scientists say they haven’t heard a peep.
The object, named Oumuamua, is shaped like a cigar. If it’s really an asteroid it would be the very first interstellar asteroid — that is, a rock that originated outside of our Solar System — to be observed by humans, but its bizarre form and speedy entry and exit gave alien hunters reason to believe it might actually be otherworldly technology. Now, it seems, that question will have to wait a little longer to be answered.
Earlier this week scientists from the Breakthrough Listen project pointed their ears towards Oumuamua in the hopes of hearing something, anything, that couldn’t be explained by some natural process. After a preliminary review of the data, they haven’t found anything that would suggest the object is actually an alien probe, but whether or not we should be happy about that is up for debate.
Humanity has been hastily attempting to make contact with intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations for decades now. We’ve sent spacecraft out of our Solar System with directions on where to find us, and shot radio wave messages to distant stars in the hopes that someone is listening. If we’re going to meet aliens, these are probably our best shots at making first contact, but should we even be trying? – READ MORE
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