| ▲ | shoxidizer 3 hours ago | |
This does sound absurd at first, but how much gravity is really needed for collection? Is there any value in just a few hundredths of earth gravity? | ||
| ▲ | idlewords 9 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | |
It's not an absurd question. The threshold value is the one that breaks surface tension and effectively pulls waste away from the body. It will be more than a few hundredths g but less than 1g. Unfortunately we have basically no data on the effects of partial gravity, in this context or any other. We can try flying partial-gravity parabolas in aircraft and simulate a Martian toilet the same way they tested the design for Skylab; I don't think this experiment has been done. | ||
| ▲ | kelnos 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | |
The article mentions that on Mars, with 0.38x Earth gravity, there will still be challenges, so I expect you need a significant fraction of 1g for the problems to go away. | ||