The nutrition / waste hose would be hooked up to a valve installed in the astronaut's belly, the nutrients supplied and waste removed.
Depending on how much of the gastrointestinal track you want to utilize, you could have the waste portion of the system extend through the intestines down towards the naughty bits where the waste is collected and removed via the two tubes connected to the belly.
Years long spaceflights would require a lot less mass. This would be basically a chemical battery for a human.-- doctorremulac3, Apr 02 2024 Adding tubes/holes is always fraught with issues around infection, particularly in this scenario. Human waste isn't particularly difficult to deal with. Just mix it up with water and either aerate it, in which case you end up with CO2 and water with various salts in it, or keep it anaerobic, in which case you end up with methane, N2 and water with various salts in. Presumably there will be plants on board a long-duration voyage, the CO2 and the salty water is exactly what the plants need, with a little messing around with the proportions and concentrations.
I'm increasingly convinced that a long-duration space craft should just be an enormous gravitationally-confined aquarium. Take your garden-variety space ship, then surround it with a big spherical bubble of water. To avoid evaporation/sublimation & gas loss, you could have a layer of oil on the surface. Presumably, the temperature at the surface would lead to freezing creating an ice layer, while the human activities in the middle will create a liquid warm zone near the ship. As long as you have your engine poking out of the bubble of water you now have a big ice/liquid radiation shield that doubles as a heat sink/shield, you could farm fish in it and if any repairs are needed, you go outside the ship in SCUBA gear which is a lot easier/safer to use.-- bs0u0155, Apr 02 2024 I like that.
I had another idea to get rid of the stomach penetration, just have the in / out be down in the naughty bits, run the food up to the stomach, bring it through the intestines as necessary then expel it. Just need to stick a thing up your butt once a day.
Not exactly the image of a space traveling hero Star Trek had us envision though. Might see volunteer numbers go way down. Some might be more inclined but most would probably pass.-- doctorremulac3, Apr 02 2024 //Star Trek had us envision though//
Can't they just transport it out? It would completely eliminate the toilet paper budget and free up a lot of ship space and troublesome plumbing*.
*warships have been having problems with various plumbing systems leaking/mixing for over a century now.-- bs0u0155, Apr 02 2024 Dunno, the Vulcan Eat & Sheet Butt Plug solves a lot of problems.
Be a good way to test how motivated prospective astronauts are.
"YOU WANNA BE A SPACE PILOT PRIVATE!"
"SIR! YES SIR!"
"THEN PROVE IT!"-- doctorremulac3, Apr 02 2024 I assume there's been studies made for more efficient ways to get the necessary materials to the cells without the bulk and waste, but you probably have to consider systems falling into atrophy by not being used.
Might be utility in Earth commerce if it was figured out, I know I hate eating sometimes, if there were a pill I could take that would take care of lunch I'd be there in a second.
Same with sleep. Hmm.-- doctorremulac3, Apr 03 2024 Space travel has problems for Earth-derived primates. If we spent 6 months traveling to Mars, we might be so weak as to crawl around on arrival, even with weak Martian gravity. Aquatic creatures would be fine, and while I think spacefaring Orcas is enough to worry all in the galactic neighborhood, it doesn't help us.
The key is hibernation. Humans lose muscle with inactivity. So do bears during hibernation, but only as fuel, they walk around fine after a whole winter stationry. 13-lined Ground squirrels are completely floppy, and you can freeze them to ~-1. We need that. And we're close. It's not an active process, hibernation, rather suspending the physiological program that keeps us at 37°C. It's an inhibition problem. Those are solvable. They're being solved.
It would do wonders for my pension fund if I could sit out 6 months per year with 0.1% metabolic rate.-- bs0u0155, Apr 05 2024 Wouldn't be surprised if that proposal would get consideration.
"Why do these old people need to be conscious anyway? They're only sucking up money and not providing tax revenue."
Today's scifi dystopia = tomorrow's "bold new steps forward".-- doctorremulac3, Apr 05 2024 In Red Dwarf, they have "stasis" originally designed to freeze time for interstellar trips. Creatively, the Jupiter Mining Corp. uses it as punishment. Sentenced to stasis, you forfeit 5 years wages and don't consume anything.
A stasis box would be a nice supplement to a fridge, cold doesn't suit many foods.-- bs0u0155, Apr 05 2024 random, halfbakery