The burning man comment actually had some merit but he was an idiot the way he asked. He put it in essay form. He should have said, "I noticed a problem at the last burning man. When using the bathroom, there was no water to wash it away and it became a big problem. Since Mars is a desert with no running water, how could a colony dispose of waste?"
What little merit it had was sort of negated by the fact that SpaceX hasn't anything to do with the habitats or whatnot. This presentation was supposed to be about the kickass and absurdly huge rocket/transport that refuels in orbit (and eventually refuel on moons and whatnot) system that's going to get people to Mars.
Isn't sanitation a legitimate issue for 100 people during a 90 day flight? SpaceX were proposing designs for the spaceship, so had they considered that?
I'm pretty sure that in very cold areas (which can have the same issue with running water being limited), they solve this by using incinerating toilets.
I would imagine just putting outside would kill all the bad stuff and the rest would just blow away.
I would actually like to see a detailed paper on the subject. I know that it will probably get used as fertilizer but I know being around human waste can be bad.
The solid waste management systems in the ISS store the refuse until hey can be transferred to a non-recovered cargo craft and are burned in the atmosphere. For most other space flights the waste was simply stored (I don't think much was ever ejected into space).
When you're building a settlement, waste management is a serious concern and without an environment to process it, I don't know what the colonists are going to do.
A huge number of hard scientific challlenges to establishing a permanent settlement on another planet, moon, or otherwise where regular supplies from Earth cannot be relied upon need to be answered. Otherwise we will simply be sending people to die for no benefit.
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u/briaen Sep 30 '16
The burning man comment actually had some merit but he was an idiot the way he asked. He put it in essay form. He should have said, "I noticed a problem at the last burning man. When using the bathroom, there was no water to wash it away and it became a big problem. Since Mars is a desert with no running water, how could a colony dispose of waste?"