There’s no artful way to put this, so I’m just going to say it: The current toilets on the International Space Station aren’t conducive to peeing and pooping at the same time. Read: A very relatable moment on the International Space Stationīut the most important new feature is the one that allows astronauts to do something that the rest of us mostly take for granted on Earth. Its metal pipes are now 3-D-printed, and still capable of withstanding the acid used to treat astronauts’ urine before it becomes their drinking water. It’s easier to maintain, which is handy because when a space toilet springs a leak, astronauts can’t call in a plumber. It is smaller and lighter than the old version. The privy represents the state of the art in NASA’s off-world bathroom facilities. NASA spent $23 million on the Universal Waste Management System, which might make it the most expensive toilet in the universe.
#TOILET INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION INSIDE INSTALL#
In the nearly 60 years since human beings first went to space, engineers have worked carefully on the technology inside spacesuits, shuttles, and capsules to accommodate this very earthly act, and the effort continues today: Astronauts are preparing to install a brand-new toilet on the International Space Station soon. On the moon the dust travels exactly and precisely as it goes in various directions, and every grain of it lands very nearly the same distance away.”Īldrin, the first person to urinate on the moon (into a special collection device worn around his waist) is one of hundreds of astronauts who, in between doing extraordinary things, have done the most mundane thing. “If one kicks sand on a beach, it scatters in numerous directions with some grains traveling farther than others. “I immediately looked down at my feet and became intrigued with the peculiar properties of the lunar dust,” the Apollo astronaut recalled in one of his memoirs. The first thing he did was examine the ground beneath his boots.
Buzz Aldrin remembers feeling “buoyant” and “full of goose pimples” when he stepped onto the moon in 1969, becoming the second person to touch the surface of another world.
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