isro | blog

Have you ever wondered how fluids behave in space?

Here's a quick description-
Sticky, defined form, unruly, lethal

Why lethal?

Containing fluids in microgravity conditions is a big challenge. These sperical water blobs if not contained and managed properly can interfere with the equipment and electronics inside the spacecraft.

Bodily waste like vomit and urine, collection and containment become even more challenging. It can contaminate the interior of the spacecraft, make astronauts sick and hinder the mission.

The project brief we received from ISRO was to design a foolproof vomit bag that is ergonomic, seals the content and contains it at the differential pressure of 1 bar.

How do they manage and dispose puke currently?

Currently, NASA uses a plastic bag with an additional cover for proper sealing and disposal.

Source-

https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/bag-motion-sickness-apollo-11/nasm_A19791559000

Opportunity Area

Scenario building, role play and activity analysis

We created a mock-up of a NASA barf bag and tried building scenarios of the use of the bag by role-playing the astronaut. Here learning about how fluids and humans function in space, through ISS videos on YouTube, came in handy. It helped us identify multiple pain points.

A few Identified Pain Points

Ease of use- The astronaut has to follow several sequential steps to unfold and use the vomit bag
Leakage hazard- There is no such feature that holds the vomit away from the astronaut's mouth and close to the base of the bag. Hence it needs to be used in one go, as soon as the astronaut takes their head out, the vomit will stick to all the walls and cloth provided for wiping the mouth clean and if opened again, the vomit will leak
The volume of the bag post-use-There is no way to remove the trapped air inside the bag to reduce the space the bag is going to occupy during storage

Outcome

We came up with multiple vomit bag concepts, prototyped them, tested them and made an exhaustive list of features, form specifications and sealing types that could be included in the final product that ISRO will create. The final deliverables were low fidelity prototypes and a design report.

The project is under NDA