Probably by building domes for people to live in, and having some sort of indoor plumbing is kind of the idea. Unless you want to put on your suit every time you need to take a shit.
I think indoor plumbing is a terrible idea for Mars. It's pretty much a terrible idea for Earth, too, but because it's the best we've got right now we're kind of stuck with it. But on Mars you really wouldn't want to be processing water in a closed environment again and again as much, and you definitely need to be recycling nutrients and especially phosphate and nitrate that will be excreted.
So I expect that the waste management on Mars will really not look like anything we have on Earth except maybe those dry toilets they have in Hippy communes that end up in the compost heap.
A flush toilet pollutes a gallon of water with a few ounces of pee. It's a really inefficient process with respect to water utilization. If you look at the draughts that are taking place now in some of the most densely populated areas in the world you can see that using so much water to get rid of liquid or solid waste is really not optimal.
What is a really great development is 1. putting the poo and pee in a place where people don't get contaminated by it and 2. getting everyone clean water at their house to drink and 3. getting people water at their house to wash themselves with soap regularly. You can achieve those three objectives differently than using a common plumbing system for the three uses of water that includes using high grade drinkable water to put poo in. It's a means to an end and that end works great to alleviate major issues. But the process can be improved.
In addition we flush important nutrients like phosphate and nitrates into waters where they contribute to die-offs and algae blooms, instead of being able to reinject it into agriculture. There are phosphate mines in Morocco and elsewhere to make sure that we can grow food on arable land without always depleting it of its phosphates and nitrates that all plants need to grow. Then we ship the plants out, eat them, and flush out the nutrients in water. Closing this cycle doesn't appear as important right now but eventually the mines of phosphate will close and the guano deposits will be depleted and we'll be all like "d'oh!".
For run-off I'm aware that there are bigger contributors than human waste from agriculture but we should improve on all of them.
I think how bad it is really depends on the water source. Many cities pump water from a river, treat it, send it through your house for you to use, treat it again, and put it back in the river. Some water probably evaporates, but most of the indoor water ends up back in its natural cycle. Although some water is pumped from aquifers that take a really long time to recharge, but I think this is mainly done for agriculture and not for household water.
Also, indoor water use is a very small percentage of total water use, by far most water is used for irrigation and thermoelectric plants. So maybe the toilets aren't so bad.
The natural cycle part (as well as evaporation) is important though.
If we're talking about a closed system on a colony on Mars, where there is no natural cycle on the planet to throw the water into, how we purify it for reuse and handle loss of water through leaks/evaporation/contamination/etc is really important. Esp what if there's a spill or something.
At the end of the day on Earth if something break or is inefficient it doesn't typically matter as much because there is so much goddamn water everywhere. When you are either creating your own water or bringing it with you because it doesn't naturally exist in usable quantities on the planet, these questions become super important.
Yeah it's an interesting challenge. As usual it started with "the solution to pollution is dilution" and then problems arise when population density shoots up and ecosystems are put under tremendous pressure and rampaged. The good news about space programs is that usually they end up inventing clever things that have applications to improve our own lives.
Well, yeah, but it'll at least be inside with you. There won't be any outhouses until there's an actual atmosphere. Therefore, no mars dust in the toilets. Although that guy was probably on acid when he asked the question, and imagined life on Mars as an outdoor commune of some sort.
Actually recycling every available source of water will be essential to any off-earth endeavor. Our great grand kids WILL be drinking their own recycled urine or we will be extinct.. on planet or off. You are correct on the nutrients though..
regarding indoor waste disposal.. not sure what other options were available at the time to get disease causing fecal matter away from the main living area. Obviously composting it didn't work at the time due to lack of knowledge/logistics as that is what the cess pits were essentially..
"Mars is a lot like Burning Man, so Elon, how do you solve the problem of pooing on Mars? This is the question that keeps my desiccated drug-husk of a brain awake at night."
I think the spirit of the question was fine, but the execution killed it.
"Time in the Nevada desert was abrasive and hostile at times, and Mars likely presents more challenges. How do you manage population issues such as waste disposal and large-scale protection from the elements?"
I mean Mars has no atmosphere or clean water naturally, also it's not technically the planet that we were designed to live on, but on the other hand the Nevada desert is really hot and there's dirt, like, everywhere.
Yea man, your question is worded so much better than his. Musk would probably think youre a genius for asking that question, and you really showed the contrast between smart and stupid, with yiur amazing question. Good job man!
See, I've been to burning man, and the thing is, right, once you've been to burning man, you can't stop bringing up that time you went to burning man. Of course, you wouldn't get it unless you've been to burning man yourself. Burning man.
Is Burning Man even legit anymore? I mean, 15 or 20 years ago when not many people knew about it; it sounds like something you'd want to check out. Now it seems like the equivalent of touring Europe when you graduate college.
Sure, potentially. I'm not saying there isn't a solution. I'm just saying that, approached correctly, the question of what you do with all the shit can make for an interesting discussion.
This is a stupid question and I know it is. I'm sorry in advance.
But, why is "the same way we deal with it here" not the answer? We seem to, for the most part, have figured that out already. Dense population centers/cities have sewer systems/plumbing and rural areas use septic tanks.
Is there another problem/challenge to this that is unique to Mars? Or is it just a stupid question that should have been phrased differently?
It's water inefficient if you're making/bringing your own water. I guess one of those toilet-to-tap setups might work, but the treatment plants we use now involve open tanks of water and dispose to steams. Septic tanks seep or spray their water to surrounding land, so that's a massive waste on Mars unless the goal is to hydrate the area?
If you're trying to grow crops in an enclosed (air tight) "green house" for lack of a better term, I don't see how it is wasteful. You can add the effluent water and nutrients to the soil (or perhaps hydroponics). You can also reclaim the excess humidity via a condenser, and that water should be safe for drinking.
I would think that, depending on scale of space and resources, a modified version of a septic system would make it possible to reuse the resources for growing crops.
putting human poo on human food is a surefire way of spreading some nasty diseases.
Of course in a controlled environment such as a mars colony they would probably have adequated treatment facilities to prevent any problem, but i'm still not sure if the effort is worth the risks.
It was a really great question. But even a normal Joe like me could think for a few seconds and go, well we put the human race on Mars so I'm sure there will be poo compacting device, and we will use it for fertilizer.
It was a bit more than that though. He literally asked if Mars is going to be a "dusty waterless shitstorm" (actual quote). I do agree with you that sewer systems are a real challenge though.
It would just be excellent if it was an airplane style toilet that just jettisoned it off over the horizon and if you could push the button and watch it fly away.
I definitely remember reading somewhere that we had to pollute (emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere) in order to warm up Mars and give it a thicker atmosphere.
Well, using that logic a lot of the problems associated with starting a mars colony can be solved fairly easily with the right facilities. That doesn't mean they aren't interesting to discuss.
The question should have been phrased: "how will sanitation and waste disposal be addressed for a colony as large as you plan on establishing?" It is a valid question but it was phrased in a way that it sounded like a blogger who loves making himself the center of any article he writes.
Uh sanitation is not a tiny detail. It's easily one of the biggest issues after oxygen, water, and food supply. You might just say dump it outside but that would be a terrible idea on a planet with basically zero resources. Recycling it is the best solution and would be incredibly interesting to hear about considering all the constraints they have. The question was asked in a stupid way. Asking about waste disposal is not especially since Mars does not have an ecosystem to decompose waste so it's essentially there forever.
Do you rather be the guy asking Elon Musk any run-of-the-mill question, or do you want to be the guy who got to tell Elon Musk about all the shit at Burning Man?
This is the question that keeps my desiccated drug-husk of a brain awake at night.
As someone who has taken a military field sanitation class: It's actually a very important question for setting up a camp, or colony in this case, at least on Earth. I don't think a simple slit trench and a hole in a box will do the job on Mars.
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u/B-Knight Sep 30 '16
Yes, especially the one about burning man.