Slashdot Mirror
Space Station Toilets Poop Out
otter42 writes "The International Space Station's toilet has gone kaput. It seems that the system for separating solid and liquid waste has developed a fault. 'Solids' go where they're supposed to, but 'liquids' don't. The astronauts have bypassed the '"the troublesome hardware" for urine collection with a "special receptacle."' Something tells me they're glad the failure wasn't the other way around." Update: 05/28 21:54 GMT by T : According to a post on Engadget, the toilet's now been repaired.
The good news is that we're about to send another shuttle up, maybe they can throw some parts in.
But they only have one toilet up there? I mean, sure it's not a "Criticality One" component, but you'd think that would be a good candidate for redundancy.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
I can't help it. My first reaction (and I am sure other peoples too) was what if an astronaut gets diarrhhea or gastroenteritis? suddenly opening the window would really look like a viable escape strategy. "Apollo bags" seems like an acceptable (albeit ghastly) short term solution.
We may be rational, sensible people but scatological subjects will always affect us badly.
No one says "The American built Columbia space shuttle blew up today." For decades growing up, all any of us heard about was the great Apollo program. No one heard about the Russian space stations, the Russian probe to Mars, etc. In fact, the first time American media reported at any length on the MIR was when it started to have problems (well after it was beyond its projected lifespan).
All of those programs were run by a single country. ISS is the international space station. You don't know who contributed what part unless you identify it. People regularly identify Japanese, Russian and other contributions to ISS because it is appropriate, both good and bad.
Now, the Russians have had a string of bad luck the past few months - the computers on ISS (although that might have been induced by new solar panels, who knows who is truly to blame), the explosive bolts on the Soyuz causing non-nominal landings (and now word that the Soyuz docked to ISS, the emergency lifeboat, has the same hardware) and now this. I'm sure they aren't happy about it but it happens. America has had their strings of bad luck as well. How many Redstone rockets exploded on the pad (or within inches of it on ascent) before we ever got a monkey into suborbital space, much less a human?
Shit happens, but I think you are being overly sensitive.
The water is recycled.
Rod Taylor
"special receptacle"
So basically they're peeing in Gatorade and Icy Tea bottles, and chucking them out the window trucker-style...!
Move all sig!
Trash is handled this way - not bodily waste.
There isn't going to be any floaters - pumps make very efficient grinders.
It's not the same situation as holding your breath. When holding your breath, the air in your lungs starts out with a lot of oxygen, which continues to be absorbed by the lungs. In a vacuum, their is no oxygen in your lungs, so your blood loses oxygen to the vacuum as it approaches equilibrium.
No go. Urine spray will mix with air inside the bottle as little bubbles and escape together with excess air as the bottles feels up. You are better off peeing in a balloon or at least crunching the bottle before use. The later scenario can lead to other body fluids being deposited for male crew members and female ones may need medical help to get the bottle out due to suction.