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Main Toilet On ISS Craps Out
The Narrative Fallacy writes "NASA has spent years getting ready for a crowd in space — adding additional sleeping quarters, learning how to recycle liquid waste into drinking water, and installing a second bathroom last year. But now the main toilet has broken down on the International Space Station while a record 13 astronauts are on board. For now Mission Control has advised the astronauts to hang an 'out of service' sign on the toilet as it may take days to repair. In the meantime, Endeavour's seven astronauts will be restricted to the shuttle bathroom. Last year a Russian cosmonaut complained that he was no longer allowed to use the US toilet because of billing and cost issues. Now the six space ISS residents will have to get in line to use the back-up toilet in the Russian part of the station. The pump separator on the malfunctioning toilet has apparently flooded, and ESA astronaut Frank De Winne is the guy tasked with putting his plumbing skills to work on short notice. 'We don't yet know the extent of the problem,' says flight director Brian Smith, adding that the toilet troubles were 'not going to be an issue' for now."
Well, now we know what hit Jupiter...
They can't use the shuttle toilet that much, since it has to dump waste water overboard periodically. They can't do this while docked.
Is anyone else just completely fed up with NASA and the ISS and our essentially stagnant space program? Most of the stories over the last few years have been:
Weather-related delays. (yawn)
Toilet malfunctions (a technology that should have been figured out, oh, say... 30 years ago?)
#(&$ing FOAM insulation that has been documented as inferior to the original version in use 25 years ago, because of some environmental concerns. Sure, we could go back to the old version for the last 3 or 4 flights, but hey, it's only people's lives at stake, right?
I had a sucky sig.
It's all Howard Wolowitz's fault.
When the Russians aren't looking, go take a dump on their side of the space station.
I'm waiting for Hollywood to make a movie about sending Joe the Plumber into space to prevent a Russian chocolate rain of terror raining down on the United States from the ISS. Starring Bruce Willis as Joe the Plumber.
Well, I guess the plumber who is going to fix it could go on record as one of the highest paid plumber ever !
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
They have 13 people up there with strong engineering and scientific backgrounds, shouldn't one of them be able to fix it. Toilet repair should be mandatory for the Russian crew members from now on, at least as they are still using the faulty Soviet MIR surplus toilets.
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Shit happens.....
*--- Sometimes a majority only means that all the fools are on the same side. ---*
Season 2, Episode 22, "The Classified Materials Turbulence".
Its a good thing their airlocks are still working. The problem is finding a bush to go behind...
http://michaelsmith.id.au
"The main toilet, a multi-million-dollar Russian-built unit, was flown up and installed on the US side of the space station last year." -BBC
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"ESA astronaut Frank De Winne is the guy tasked with putting his plumbing skills to work on short notice. 'We don't yet know the extent of the problem,' says flight director Brian Smith, adding that the toilet troubles were 'not going to be an issue' for now."
So you've just blasted into space on top of a giant stick of explosives. You're in one of the most unique places in the world with an awesome windows view but you have to spend your time fixing the toilet. That would really ruin his day.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
Apparently the shit hit the fan a little bit too hard.
No sig today...
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means in zero G.
... but so far have nothing to go on.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
The very name 'back-up toilet' evokes bad images. Especially in space. You can't just call Space RotoRooter, you know, if the plumbing clogs. Hey wait. Is there such a thing as an astronaut-plumber specialty? And if so, does NASA issue a suit with a butt crack window? And when they finish unclogging, are they flushed with pride at the accomplishment? Space can be tough; I cannot recall Darth Vader ever going to the bathroom, which may explain his terrible temperament. I'd go over to the Dark Side too, if I'd been constipated for 6 whole movies. No wonder they called it the Death Star, if it lacked toilets.
More importantly, if they jiggle the handel, will it jiggle bach? After all, the toilet *is* baroquen.
Waitwaitwait, that's Russian technology?
*groan* Oh c'mon, where's the problem. Kick it a few times and it works again.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Obligatory Armageddon quote:
American components, Russian components, all made in Taiwan! :)
Agreed, and that is why if we ever want to get a successfull manned trip to mars or beyond we really need a space station because a space station is the only way to get experiance dealing with theese sorts of problems.
When the space station can go for years at a time without needing any unexpected stuff from earth that is the time to start considering a long distance manned mission.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
This one implies that the Russians were being discriminated against (Last year a Russian cosmonaut complained that he was no longer allowed to use the US toilet), but the linked summary says "Padalka, who will be the station's next commander, says the arguments date back to 2003, when Russia started charging other space agencies for the resources used by their astronauts" and also that it was only a *suggestion* that they stick to their own plumbing.
Ah yes, the Russians. A people renowned for their capacity to endure any hardship, their ability to get things done no matter how badly the system is broken... Let me tell you, there's lots of things you ought to admire about the Russians, sonny boy, but plumbing ain't one of 'em.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Standard Operating Procedure for Waste Disposal Repair:ISS
1. designated technician must respond no sooner than 5 hours after initial failure is detected.
2. display of 2.27-5.323 inches of exposed gluteus maximus is required at all times during any/all repair exercises
3. no work is to be performed for a duration of longer than 12 minutes, without 30 minute recovery period. consumption of 1 slim-jim or approx. 11 corn nuts during recovery period is recommended
4. repair costs will be billed to all parties involved and uninvolved in damage and repair. total repair will be factored against the strength of the yen, yuan, and national deficit accordingly to arrive at a final cost of no less than 3/4th the 2011 NASA budget proposal.
Good people go to bed earlier.
OOohh, well.... (breaths in through teeth)... it's these space toilets. You just can't get the parts these days. I mean, I can probably have it for you for next month, how's that? Any sooner and it means a trip down to the warehouse to pick up bits. And, you know, my little van is going to struggle getting back to Earth and then back again, especially at this time of night.
Tell you what I'll do... Tell you what I'll do... I'll ring me mate. He's just doing a job over on the Mars landers. He'll have it for you in no time, no time at all.
Discount for cash?
No, they are definitely, unavoidably an "issue". Otherwise we wouldn't have a story. It might not be a "problem", though really this is also a problem, but one with a solution. But anything that people can legitimately talk about, that anyone agrees is worth talking about, is an "issue".
The computer world has turned everyone into a coward afraid of admitting something might be a "problem". Instead, everything's an "issue", which might not be a problem. That's nice: no problem, no blame; just some chitchat and a "resolution". Or it's "unresolved", but that's still not as bad as a problem. Except that's all a bunch of words in denial that there's a problem without a solution. Which makes it hard to solve the problem.
There is no doubt that losing toilets in orbit, to the point of relying on a backup, across an international divide that was itself a political problem for months, is a "problem". If we can't call that what it is, I don't know if we can take the problems that space exploration brings with it. And that issue is a real problem.
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make install -not war
You end up with frozen turds in the same orbit as the ISS.
Astronaut looks out the window: "Somebody likes corn."
What about overboard is so deeply connected to maritime terminology? Any vessel - ship, plane, train, spacecraft - can be boarded. Any replacement word would still come out to a similar term - offboard or outboard perhaps, but doing that is a bit forced and unnecessarily pedantic when everyone already understands overboard just fine.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Just because "someone" has always done it this way doesn't make it right.
Actually, when it comes to language, and when "someone" really is "virtually everyone", then yes, that's EXACTLY what makes it right . . .
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain