Mars travelers must use feces to cover the spacecraft

Not only spending 501 days in a harsh cosmic environment, the couple was selected by American millionaire Dennis Tito to join a private journey to Mars that would have to use their own dung to cover the walls of the ship. pillars to prevent radiation.

Researchers say one of the biggest threats to the mission is radiation from cosmic rays. They eventually found a positive solution: asking participants to travel to Mars to use water, food and their excrement to shield the spacecraft walls.

'It sounds nauseating but there is no place to get rid of that material and it will create a great radiation shield,' said Taber MacCallum, a mission team member funded by millionaire Dennis Tito.

Travel spacecraft simulation image to Mars of Inspiration Mars - one
Non-profit organization, responsible for promoting Mr. Tito's project. (Photo: AP)

According to MacCallum, solid and liquid waste will be used for this purpose after dehydration (the collected water will continue to be recycled for drinking). The solid waste products will then be put into a bag, based on the walls of the spacecraft.

Last week, millionaire Dennis Tito, 73, a former engineer of the US Aerospace Agency (NASA), officially announced the promotion of his $ 1 billion ambitious and daring plan, aimed at bringing an elderly couple outside 50 travel to Mars for the next 5 years, on January 5, 2018.

Naming the project 'Mission for America' , Mr. Tito announced that the first couple of Mars travelers must meet a stringent set of criteria: First they must be spouses, middle-aged, have children. (ie over the reproductive age). The reason is that, during the 18-month journey, billions of kilometers away, they will suffer cosmic radiation that damages sperm and ovaries, which can cause infertility, alter DNA and reduce the amount of sacrifices. blood cells.

American millionaire Dennis Tito founded the nonprofit organization Inspiration Mars to promote a private tourism project on Mars. Mr. Tito spent $ 20 million on the Russian Space Agency to visit the ISS International Space Station for 8 days at the end of April 2001. (Photo: ABC / AP)

This special tour also requires participants to have a steel spirit to endure solitude and deal with the out-of-prognosis uncertainties of the project's technical experts. Mr. Tito said that only the deep love of a couple can overcome this obstacle and help them to cover each other when there is a dangerous incident.

In particular, the tourists must also anticipate and accept the risk of falling ill or being injured so there will be no hospital for treatment, the flight cannot stop to return before 2019. If the disease is severe, the opportunity Their survival is very low.

So far, two volunteers have registered with Inspiration Mars - a non-profit organization, responsible for promoting Mr. Tito's project. It is Mr. Taber MacCallum, 48, chief executive and co-founder of Paragon Space Development, which produces life support systems in harsh conditions like on a spaceship, and his wife. Jayne Poynter MacCallum, 50 years old.

The MacCallum couple's candidacy has an advantage because, 20 years ago, they spent two years in the Biosphere 2 project, which trains people living in a planetary simulation community at Oracle, Arizona. , America.