21–30 of 63 posts
Is it simpler to build a better space toilet, or to build a ship with centrifugal gravity and use a regular toilet?
I've always wondered about regular toilets and now this. Someone has to test it. I'm sure they have equivalent items to run through them but, eventually, you have to try the real thing so whose job is it to do that and how do they do that?
https://slate.com/technology/2025/02/toilets-low-flow-trump-...
I've always wondered about regular toilets and now this. Someone has to test it. I'm sure they have equivalent items to run through them but, eventually, you have to try the real thing so whose job is it to do that and how do they do that?
https://map-testing.com/background/
(And really thorough history! https://map-testing.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Backgroun...)
Apparently, a "MaP Premium" toilet is going to be the golden shitter.
> One piece of feedback from Skylab was that the toilet needed stronger airflow. This meant the Shuttle toilet opening had to be narrow. To practice correctly positioning their body, astronauts on Earth sat on a special training mockup with a camera mounted in the center of the waste tube. A successful docking with the device meant precisely centering one’s nether eye in the crosshairs of a video screen while crewmat…
You could’ve told me this story without the context and I would’ve assumed it was a barracks game being played with surveillance equipment. Hilarious.
Is it simpler to build a better space toilet, or to build a ship with centrifugal gravity and use a regular toilet?
This does sound absurd at first, but how much gravity is really needed for collection? Is there any value in just a few hundredths of earth gravity?
I've always wondered about regular toilets and now this. Someone has to test it. I'm sure they have equivalent items to run through them but, eventually, you have to try the real thing so whose job is it to do that and how do they do that?
One popular "equivalent" for flush testing is a condom full of soybean paste (yum!) https://slate.com/technology/2025/02/toilets-low-flow-trump-...
The guy apparently had a master's degree in plumbing somehow (I thought he was joking but he had indeed put himself all the way into a master's level engineering degree, mostly as a hobby). He first got out his scope and confirmed there was zero blockage in the sewer pipe and the septic tank itself. All good.
Then he started simulating flushing a load: wads of toilet paper, measured by number of squares. 17 squares went down just fine, but then he did 25, which he said is the max he expects a toilet to do. Instantly clogged.
He then told the landlord to stop buying $90 toilets and that he'd just advised a nursing home that had bought a bunch of the exact same model to rip them out and put in a better, $150 model.
So yeah, that's how you test it.
Is it simpler to build a better space toilet, or to build a ship with centrifugal gravity and use a regular toilet?
If people are going to live in space for any period of time then they are going to need gravity so long term, yes.
Is it simpler to build a better space toilet, or to build a ship with centrifugal gravity and use a regular toilet?
The centrifugal gravity approach requires a massive structure - you need something like 200+ meter radius to keep rotation rates low enough that Coriolis effects don't make people nauseous (which would create a whole different toilet problem). Building a better space toilet is orders of magnitude cheaper and lighter than spinning up a habitat.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This goes into a bit more mechanical detail than the Substack post (which only gestures at "air suction"). I'm still not sure whether there are different urine hose adapters for men and women or not.
The hose is the same but there are different funnel attachments (the part looks kind of like the cup from a jock strap, and is longer and narrower for women)
Is it simpler to build a better space toilet, or to build a ship with centrifugal gravity and use a regular toilet?