Photo via FMT
Ever heard of the Lunar Loo Challenge?
Conducted by the US’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) earlier this year, the Lunar Loo Challenge is quite literally, a design competition for space toilets!
That’s right! As NASA prepares for upcoming projects to the moon, astronauts will need a toilet that has all the same capabilities as the ones we use here on Earth.
But although space toilets already exist and are in use, they are only designed for microgravity (when astronauts and objects float in space).
Kevin Lim Chin Seong’s ‘Fully Self-Contained Lunar Toilet’ was one of 2,000 submissions exploring concepts for a smaller, more efficient toilet, capable of working in both microgravity and the moon’s gravity.
And the 38-year-old engineer just got an honourable mention for his entry from NASA itself!
Lim told Free Malaysia Today that his inspiration for his design came from his favourite film actor Matt Damon and his performance in the 2015 sci-fi movie The Martian.
“When I first read the challenge, I pretty much had a rough idea. It then took me about two months from writing down the ideas to figuring out how the ideas would work seamlessly with one another.
“The simplicity of the design was an important factor so that the astronauts could use the space toilet with relative ease,” he explained.
Lim was also drawn to the challenge because of his experience working on oil rigs, where toilets weren’t always available, and it made him wonder what astronauts have to go through.
“If we were working in the city then yes, the toilet was always available to us, but the problem arose when we worked in the middle of a jungle or even in a desert and we needed to answer the call of nature,” he said.
Lim added he’s very thankful for this chance to have put Malaysia on the map, and it has inspired him to continue advancing his career in research and development.
“There are many technical challenges be it for space exploration, global warming and renewable energy, and I would like to play my part to move mankind forward.”
Great work, Lim!
by Kyle Roshen Jacob
