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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."
They already have one - for the Shuttle. I've seen it on Discovery or something.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
1) Yes.
2) No.
Lets see -
Project Mercury Atronauts - Shepherd had to piss in is suit on the launch pad - no catheter, no "adult diapers" ...
Gemini Astronauts - baggies with adhesive rims - strap it around your arse and take a dump, then "brown-bag it".
Apollo - baggies in the CM, diapers in the LEM.
$19 million to keep the crap and piss from floating all over the place - a lot cheaper than a "baggie failure", and a lot less time-consuming. Time is one thing that's at a premium - the $19 mill.saves them more than it costs.
It's not just a toilet, but a water reclamation unit. FTA: "...the urine is automatically transferred to a U.S. device that can generate potable water."
Plus, with this system very similar to the Russian module, there's no need for new training (and yes, you do need training to use a space toilet).
Finally--sorry to be indelicate--but in zero gravity, I'd say it's worth the $19M to avoid small droplets of urine end up in the electronics or worse, a small piece of poo float into your Tang.
Regarding your second question:
Define "up".
No, it's the Earth equivalent of not just the toilet, but the sewage plant as well. It actually turns urine into drinking water.
If you think about it, a litre of water made from urine saves $10,000/kg in launch costs. The system will quickly pay for itself with 3-6 astronauts up there.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"1: that said, I've never understood why so many men insist on peeing standing up, when it's cleaner, more comfortable and doesn't cost more time to sit down. eh? wha? It does in fact cost more time to sit down. Trousers, underwear, belt all have to be undone and dropped, whereas all you need to undo standing is a zipper. I've never understood why everyone seems to limit the practice to men however. It is quite common among women here as well. surprised to not see it happen everywhere, considering the apparent convenience.
It's hard to say. Using a generous $1M = 10 man-years of effort (at about $100/man-year) this means you would spend that much money on only 190 man-years. The question is, how many man-years to design, prototype, test, and build a production version of this?
190 man-years seems like a lot to me though. It gets worse if you use "world average" cost of a man year, which is closer to $20k instead of $100k.
Converting everything to man-years isn't always the best way to look at costs, but it is a handy back-of-the-envelope method to do a sanity check on big-ticket items. The difficulty comes in because sometimes the "years" in "man-years" isn't just the years worked, but also the years of "pay without work" to cover things like low-demand services. For instance, if I want to make a living building space toilets, but the market is only for one space toilet every 5 years, then one space toilet has to cover 5 years' worth of my living. And if I'm the expert or whatever in space toilet development, people won't mind paying my living for 5 years with only one sale, because that will help ensure that I'll be able to make that additional space toilet 5 years later instead of being unavailable because I have to work at Big Box Retailer Number Seven because I didn't have enough income to stay in the space toilet market.
Remember, space toilets aren't something they make using mass production in the lowest-priced labor market.
"There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
I would like to see the break down of what costs so fscking much.
Field test data. Have you priced a 2 week field test run lately?
The truth shall set you free!
Yeah, but when it comes to the interview and you're asked what that "critical tool" was, it will surely cause a snicker or two. Sure, it's critical but ... well, it's not really as flashy as designing some robot arm, you'll agree. Even though it's probably more important than that arm could be.
But maybe that's exactly why they didn't put it up as a "layman commission". I mean, a failed robot arm means that one experiment out of a number fails. But a loo backing up in space surely cancels all of them.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.