Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone
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Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone
1–10 of 183 posts
Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone
#2Thoroughly enjoyed reading this, especially the author’s repeated obsession on the door vs. curtain innovation…
Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone
#3This is one of those stupid, unglamorous works that legitimately facilitates long-term space exploration ambitions in a way just focusing on the sexy bits, e.g. propulsion.
Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone
#4While space has always interested me quite a bit, I've never looked into the toilet situation and I had this scene [0] from an unrealistic kids movie firmly fixed in my brain as "this is how they use the restroom in space, or something better since that movie is old".
Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone
#5Relevantly, the Artemis 2 waste management system was non functional for a bit: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/02/artemis-ii-fl...
Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone
#6This is one of those stupid, unglamorous works that legitimately facilitates long-term space exploration ambitions in a way just focusing on the sexy bits, e.g. propulsion.
It is the plumbing, not the porcelain.
Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone
#7While space has always interested me quite a bit, I've never looked into the toilet situation and I had this scene [0] from an unrealistic kids movie firmly fixed in my brain as "this is how they use the restroom in space, or something better since that movie is old". [0] https://youtu.be/pJQGJmYKWZ0?t=131
It wasn't actually that far off.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Space_Shuttle_toilet...
Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone
#8While space has always interested me quite a bit, I've never looked into the toilet situation and I had this scene [0] from an unrealistic kids movie firmly fixed in my brain as "this is how they use the restroom in space, or something better since that movie is old". [0] https://youtu.be/pJQGJmYKWZ0?t=131
I always think of Apollo 13 (the movie): oh look, constellation u-rine
Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone
#9Listening to the live stream yesterday evening - they performed a significant amount of troubleshooting for the toilet. This required consulting with a full team of experts, including a "Toilet Lead". It seems it wasn't "flushing" waste into the collection bag or something similar - but they were eventually able to get it working.
I found the language NASA and the astronauts used to communicate absolutely hilarious - "Yes, we're excited and eager to begin immediate fluid disposal!"
Glad they got it working - best of luck to Atemis II mission!
Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone
#10They should have trained plumbers to be astronauts instead of training astronauts to be plumbers. (Armageddon reference)
But seriously, although I guess it’s fair to say that errors will occur, still: they couldn’t get the plumbing right?