I study volcanoes on other planets, and I’m interested in how people can work in extreme environments like space.
So how do you go to the bathroom in space or on the International Space Station? Carefully – and with suction.
A bathroom vacuum
In 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space. His trip was supposed to be short, so there was no plan for pee. But the launch was delayed for over three hours after Shepard climbed into the rocket. Eventually, he asked if he could exit the rocket to pee. Instead of wasting more time, mission control concluded that Shepard could safely pee inside his spacesuit. The first American in space went up in damp underwear.
Fortunately, there’s a toilet on the space station these days. The original toilet was designed in 2000 for men and was difficult for women to use: You had to pee while standing up. To poop, astronauts used thigh straps to sit on the small toilet and to keep a tight seal between their bottoms and the toilet seat. It didn’t work very well and was hard to keep clean.
So in 2018, NASA spent US$23 million on a new and improved toilet for astronauts on the International Space Station. To get around the problems of zero-gravity bathroom breaks, the new toilet is a specially designed vacuum toilet. There are two parts: a hose with a funnel at the end for peeing and a small raised toilet seat for pooping.
The bathroom is full of handholds and footholds so that astronauts don’t drift off in the middle of their business. To pee, they can sit or stand and then hold the funnel and hose tightly against their skin so that nothing leaks out. To poop, astronauts lift the toilet lid and sit on the seat – just like here on Earth. But this toilet starts suctioning as soon as the lid is lifted to prevent things from drifting away – and to control the stink. To make sure that there is a tight fit between the toilet seat and the astronauts’ behinds, the toilet seat is smaller than the one in your house.
After the deed is done
Pee is more than 90% water. Since water is heavy and takes up a lot of space, it is better to recycle pee rather than bring up clean water from Earth. All astronaut pee is collected and turned back into clean, drinkable water. Astronauts say that “Today’s coffee is tomorrow’s coffee!”
If you’ve ever seen a shooting star, it might have been a meteorite burning up in Earth’s atmosphere – or it might have been flaming astronaut poo. And the next time you have to pee or poop, be thankful that you’re doing it with gravity’s help.
This story was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original here.
