Astronauts are humans after all... so, no matter how great their achievements are, they are still bound by nature's "smelly" laws.
You don't hear, nor see, anything about it on the news, when they successfully take off or land, but physical limitations are of great concern for NASA.
The famous question was popped by prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the UK, when he was taking a tour of a space facility in the US. He asked the astronauts how exactly do they go to the toilet.
First of all, space toilets don't use water. It's not only because water is expensive and too important for drinking, on the ship, but also because the lack of gravity on the shuttle and the space station make a flush system impossible. You can imagine why, by yourselves!
Instead, it's all about air. On the space shuttles, as well as on
the International Space Station (ISS), urine and feces are carried away by the rapid air flow. Due to the lack of space, they is only one unisex toilet, so it can get pretty crowded up there, where it comes to getting to the crapper.
It may look like a conventional toilet, but it has some extra features. For instance, straps over the feet and bars over the thighs to make sure that the astronauts don't drift off mid-go. Even the seat has a unique design, much smaller, so the bottom can make a perfect seal.
At least they can piss standing up! And it's not so hard to control the "jet," as they don't just let it drop (zero gravity, remember?) but instead, they use a funnel-on-a-hose contraption. Male and female astronauts use the same object, in turn, of course, by attaching it to the toilet using a pivoting bracket. After the "job" is completed, the system separates solid and liquid waste. Liquids are released into space after they're sucked up and stored in 20-liter containers. Solids are compressed and remain on-board to be unloaded after landing. They are contained in a bag, that is pushed into a metal container. A new bag is popped in for the next visitor.
On the ISS, they dump the containers into the Progress resupply craft, which is later ejected into the atmosphere, where it burns up. The smelly air is filtered to eliminate all bacteria and smells, ant it's then resent to the living area.
But what do they do if they need to "go" during launch or landing? Well, they just wear adult nappies...
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