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Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone

#161

Post by darkwater »

riffraff wrote: post #111
darkwater wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This really tells you how "bad masculinity" pervaded everything. I'm speaking of the designers here, not the astronauts. Why not a diaper also for male astronauts from the beginning? Isn't manly enough? Does it show weakness, like a toddler or an old dying man?

I think the designers just didn't think of it. Women also started with a feminized version of the uncomfortable device and then switched to diapers, and then men followed. It's possible there were no women on the design team but I don't think it's a case of bad masculinity.

I don't think that having or not having women in the design team is the key here. IMO it's more about how men perceive how men should be.

Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone

#162

Post by hammock »

asdff wrote: post #54
smallmancontrov wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Warning: gross Of course, but the fundamental problem is that difficulties compound. It starts with: pooping is much harder when gravity isn't there to persistently tug on the turd. Something that is slightly obnoxious on Earth (using a bag, using a suit flap) turns into an absolute trainwreck when you have a bag, a suit flap, and turd separation failure. Now you have to do precise mechanical manipulation of an objec…

Seems like a big issue is I'm guessing insistence on having this be a solo operation for cultural reasons. Seems like it would be easy with two astronauts. Have the one bend over and spread the cheeks wide with both hands, the other basically does the hand in the dog poop bag trick right as the poop is coming out and wipes them up after. No worse than what a nurse does every day for work.

> Seems like a big issue is I'm guessing insistence on having this be a solo operation for cultural reasons

What cultures are you aware of that do pair programming for poopies?

Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone

#163

Post by scarier »

WalterBright wrote: post #148
scarier wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly this isn't something people select for at all--by the time you've made it through that many rounds of selection you aren't going to let GI issues keep you from the finish. I've heard of some creative solutions to the problem involving safing the ejection seat and getting out of your gear, but I don't really believe any of them. If you think it's a significant risk, you basically have two options: talk to the…

I suppose you could avoid eating hours before a mission, and not eat gassy foods.

That's one option, although for longer missions your preparation generally needs to start the night before and I wouldn't recommend flying on an empty stomach (unless it works for you, but it makes most people more susceptible to airsickness). There isn't one consistent method that works for everyone--I think the book Sled Driver has a section where they talk about physiological preparation for SR-71 flights, and the only consistent habit the crew had was NOT eating the "traditional," low-residue steak-and-eggs breakfast.

Good news for gassy food lovers is the cabin pressure changes make everyone fart, there's no one else in the cockpit to hear or smell you, and even if there was it'd be loud and they'd be wearing an oxygen mask. Little victories.

Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone

#165

Post by WalterBright »

the_af wrote: post #160
WalterBright wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose you could avoid eating hours before a mission, and not eat gassy foods.

I wonder if hunger can affect your focus and reflexes though.

If missing a meal causes that, I suspect we would have died out as a species long ago.

Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone

#166

Post by stronglikedan »

asdff wrote: post #55
azalemeth wrote: post #17

Toileting is really fecking important. As someone with a spinal injury you really don't realise just how important until it goes wrong. Apparently one of the down sides about the previous system was that the separation of solid and liquid excreta ideally required someone to separate their excretion of both kinds. Apparently this is something that male astronauts found much much easier than female ones. Artemis's toil…

Centrifuge would separate that stool and urine

I wonder what would happen if they just stood in the bathroom and spun in circles with their suit flap open while they were evacuating. Would it float far enough away fast enough due to centrifugal force for them to be able to catch it with the bag on the backspin, before crashing into the walls of the bathroom?

Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone

#167

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

malfist wrote: post #130
pulvinar wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The goal here is neutral buoyancy when in gravity so that it behaves as though there were no gravity. Put a bag of water in water and it floats like the rest of the water, gravity or no.

Neutral buoyancy is achieved with very specific densities. You can either make the astronaut buoyant, or you can make the poop, but not both at the same time.

Do you need both? I assumed the astronaut has a handle or strap or something to fix their reference frame to the toilet. They can be only partially submerged.

Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone

#168

Post by mr_toad »

WalterBright wrote: post #148
scarier wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly this isn't something people select for at all--by the time you've made it through that many rounds of selection you aren't going to let GI issues keep you from the finish. I've heard of some creative solutions to the problem involving safing the ejection seat and getting out of your gear, but I don't really believe any of them. If you think it's a significant risk, you basically have two options: talk to the…

I suppose you could avoid eating hours before a mission, and not eat gassy foods.

in WWII they had to avoid serving gassy foods to bomber crews because at high altitudes intestinal issues could go from uncomfortable to lethal.

Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone

#169

Post by WalterBright »

scarier wrote: post #163
WalterBright wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose you could avoid eating hours before a mission, and not eat gassy foods.

That's one option, although for longer missions your preparation generally needs to start the night before and I wouldn't recommend flying on an empty stomach (unless it works for you, but it makes most people more susceptible to airsickness). There isn't one consistent method that works for everyone--I think the book Sled Driver has a section where they talk about physiological preparation for SR-71 flights, and the…

I don't pack liquids when flying as the lowered air pressure forces the liquid out of the container. Factory sealed is ok.

Re: Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone

#170

Post by WalterBright »

mr_toad wrote: post #168
WalterBright wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose you could avoid eating hours before a mission, and not eat gassy foods.

in WWII they had to avoid serving gassy foods to bomber crews because at high altitudes intestinal issues could go from uncomfortable to lethal.

I didn't know that! But I do know that crews got eggs before flights. Nobody else did.

When RAF pilots went to the Soviet Union to help the Soviets, when the first frost came the pilots were horrified when the women brought out big vats of fat and ladled it out. But after flying in those cold temperatures, they realized the fat was just the thing to keep them warm!

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