Potty training: NASA tests new $23M titanium space toilet
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s first new space potty in decades —
a $23 million titanium toilet better suited for women — is getting a
not-so-dry run at the International Space Station before eventually
flying to the moon.
It’s packed inside a cargo ship that should
have blasted off late Thursday from Wallops Island, Virginia. But the
launch was aborted with just two minutes remaining in the countdown.
Northrop Grumman said it would try again Friday night if engineers can
figure out what went wrong.
Barely 100 pounds (45 kilograms) and
just 28 inches (71 centimeters) tall, the new toilet is roughly half as
big as the two Russian-built ones at the space station. It’s more
camper-size to fit into the NASA Orion capsules that will carry
astronauts to the moon in a few years.
Station residents will test it out for a few months. If the shakedown goes well, the toilet will be open for regular business.
With
SpaceX now launching astronauts to the space station and Boeing less
than a year from sending up its first crew, more toilets are needed. The
new one will be in its own stall alongside the old one on the U.S. side
of the outpost.
The old toilets cater more toward men. To better
accommodate women, NASA tilted the seat on the new toilet and made it
taller. The new shape should help astronauts position themselves better
for No. 2, said Johnson Space Center’s Melissa McKinley, the project
manager.
“Cleaning up a mess is a big deal. We don’t want any misses or escapes,” she said.
Let’s just say everything floats in weightlessness.
As
for No. 1, the funnels also have been redesigned. Women can use the
elongated and scooped-out funnels to urinate while sitting on the
commode to poop at the same time, McKinley said. Until now, it’s been
one or the other for female astronauts, she noted.
Like earlier
space commodes, air suction, rather than water and gravity, removes the
waste. Urine collected by the new toilet will be routed into NASA’s
long-standing recycling system to produce water for drinking and
cooking. Titanium and other tough alloys were chosen for the new toilet
to withstand all the acid in the urine pretreatment.
Going to the
bathroom in space may sound simple, but “sometimes the simple things
become very difficult” without gravity, said NASA astronaut Mike
Hopkins, commander of the second SpaceX crew, due to launch Oct. 31 from
Kennedy Space Center.
While the old design isn’t that hard to
use, subtle design changes can make all the difference for women, noted
NASA astronaut Shannon Walker, a former space station resident who’s
also on the next SpaceX crew.
“Trust me, I’ve got going to the
bathroom in space down, because that is a vital, vital thing to know how
to do,” she told The Associated Press earlier this week.
The
typical space station population will go from six to seven with the next
SpaceX flight, and even more when non-professionals like tourists start
showing up as early as next year. Astronauts normally stay six months.
The
last time NASA ordered up a new toilet was in the early 1990s to
accommodate two-week space shuttle missions. The agency contracted with
Collins Aerospace to provide the latest model; the company also worked
on the shuttle potties.
Also in the 8,000-pound (3,600-kilogram)
shipment aboard Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus capsule: air tanks to make up
for a slight space station leak, radish seeds for greenhouse growing and
a cinematic 360-degree VR camera for you-are-there-spacewalk shots.
Perhaps
the most unique payload: Estee Lauder’s newest wrinkle serum. The
cosmetics company is paying $128,000 for an out-of-this-world photo
shoot, part of NASA’s push to open the final frontier to marketing,
industry and tourism.
Don’t count on perfumed aromas, though, to counter bathroom odors.
The serum is fragrance-free and the 10 bottles will remain sealed until returned to Earth early next year.