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NASA Purchases $19M Russian Space Toilet
Gary writes "NASA has paid $19 million for a Russian-built international space station toilet system. The toilet system, similar to the one already in use in the station's Zvezda Service Module, is scheduled to arrive at the space station in 2008 and will offer more privacy for a crew expected to double from three to six by 2009. The space station toilet physically resembles those used on Earth, except it has leg restraints and thigh bars to keep astronauts and cosmonauts from floating away. NASA says purchasing the multi million dollar toilet is a bargain compared to developing one from scratch."
Toilets flush money down you? I guess NASA learned a lesson after the incident where Russian cosmonauts decided to simply use pencils instead of spending millions developing a zero-g pen... NASA probably just spent $19M on a hole in the side of the space station that astronauts press their cheeks against so the poo is forced into the vacuum of space. So worth every penny.
(p.s. yes I know the space pen thing is an urban legend)
I still think the priorities are all wrong.
who gives a -proverbial- sh*t about a sewage recycling system that cuts launch costs when tens of thousands of people don't have a roof over their head.
There's no honor to be found in accomplishing a way to turn piss into drinking water for a couple of astronauts if that sickeningly large amount of money could have been spent on people in need. US citizens or elsewhere.
First you do what NEEDS to be done as a government, and if that's all done appropriately, you do what CAN be done aside, like shooting people into orbit.
That's what's wrong with governments all around the world: their people come last. Prestige, personal gain and power come first.
I've always been a great fan of space exploration and scientific discovery, but, much like the governing bodies of this world, it DIRELY needs to be placed into a social context and should stop to be seen as a society in itself that can operate without justification or boundaries.
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.