Shradha Angrish and Mei He, winners of ActInSpace Australia at the international finals in Bordeaux, France.
When Team ‘The Red Planet’ took to the stage at the 2026 global ActInSpace finals in April, they weren’t pitching rockets or satellites. Instead they were tackling a problem that has followed female astronauts for decades, how menstruation is managed in space.
An issue that will become even more critical as humanity prepares for long-duration missions beyond earth, and one that propelled them into the top five teams globally.
Mei He and Shradha Angrish, two engineering students from Adelaide University, won the ActInSpace Australia competition at the ICC in January, which sent them to France to compete against the rest of the world.
ActInSpace is an international competition where teams work for 24 hours straight using technology and data to solve challenges in space.
With little to no research or data surrounding how menstruation is managed in space, Mei and Shradha keenly took on the challenge.
Space missions are built to recycle air, water and waste. But when it comes to periods, astronauts still depend on disposable products or hormone suppression, adding waste, potential health risks and stress.
The Red Planet proposed a space-adapted menstrual management system that included an innovative valve added to a menstrual cup to deal with the lack of gravity, allowing for menstrual waste to be collected for up to 12 hours. The fluid can then be emptied and repurposed as plant fertiliser just as other waste is, creating a closed-loop space-grade menstrual system.
The team participated in their semi-final heat before being announced in the global top five teams and asked to pitch again for the grand prize, a zero-gravity flight experience.
While the first prize went to Senegal for their project of a constellation of CubeSats designed to rapidly transfer space data to users on Earth, Mei and Shradha say they left with a community of friends, some great perspective and some key learnings.
“It was huge to make it to the global top five, but the bigger win for me was the perspectives we gained and the fact that we actually stood in front of a huge auditorium, pointing to anatomy diagrams talking menstruation in microgravity, and people listened,” Shradha said.
“I am very aware of the privilege that I've had growing up, and this event was a reminder of that. I feel this responsibility to use the privilege that I have to reduce barriers for those who don't have it and look for opportunities to uplift others,” Mei said.
The team say they received overwhelmingly positive feedback from judges and participants.
“It was very encouraging to see people (men and women) being so encouraging about our idea and genuinely interested in having an actual conversation about it, wanting to help us,” Mei said.
Although disappointed to not ultimately win, they were proud of their efforts and those of their peers.
“When the winners were announced and they got to the stage, the happiness on their faces was so contagious. We had a strong sense of community for an international competition. We were competitors but we were also just people who like space, and that’s something you can bond over no matter where you’re from,” Shradha said.
In total, 391 teams from 23 countries around the world competed in the local ActInSpace 2026 events guided by 396 experts.
While the next ActInSpace competition will take place in 2028, The Red Planet’s idea, and the conversation it sparked, is far from over.
