Scientists explore using astronaut poop to make space food
Astronauts aboard the ISS drink recycled pee for a reason: we can only bring so much food and water to to space. Imagine how much more we need to take for that year-long journey to Mars. Since bringing more resources means higher costs -- the heavier a spacecraft is, the more fuel it needs, after all -- scientists are looking to find ways to make self-sustaining vehicles. A team of researchers from Penn State University, for instance, have developed a method to make space food with astronaut poop . Disgusting? Well, the team's technique doesn't exactly turn the feces itself into food. Instead, it uses microbes to break down solid and liquid human waste with anaerobic digestion, a process that doesn't consume precious oxygen, similar to what happens inside our stomach when we eat. During digestion, the fecal material produces methane, which is then fed to bacteria ( Methylococcus capsulatus ) naturally found in soil and already used to make animal pellets using a microb...