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Let's talk space toilets

mceglowski.substack.com

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Re: Let's talk space toilets

#41

Post by idontwantthis »

nozzlegear wrote: post #7

> 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…

I can totally picture one of the engineers glancing at the Apollo docking simulator and a grin coming across his face.

Re: Let's talk space toilets

#42

Post by maptime »

>A successful docking with the device meant precisely centering one’s nether eye in the crosshairs of a video screen while crewmates looked on and yelled their encouragement.

Massive Interstellar vibes, I guess it is "necessary"

Re: Let's talk space toilets

#44

Post by idlewords »

shoxidizer wrote: post #21
ooterness wrote: post #10

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?

It's not an absurd question. The threshold value is the one that breaks surface tension and effectively pulls waste away from the body. It will be more than a few hundredths g but less than 1g.

Unfortunately we have basically no data on the effects of partial gravity, in this context or any other. We can try flying partial-gravity parabolas in aircraft and simulate a Martian toilet the same way they tested the design for Skylab; I don't think this experiment has been done.

Re: Let's talk space toilets

#45

Post by s5300 »

gambiting wrote: post #40

And as someone else said....the entire business would be solved if not for our cultural tabboo that requires astronauts to do the whole procedure by themselves. If you could have another crew member actively helping it would be done quicker in a much more hygenic way. But because it's "private" they have to do these crazy acrobatics to do it alone. And like, back on Earth nurses have to do much much worse stuff every…

[dead]

Re: Let's talk space toilets

#46

Post by themafia »

ooterness wrote: post #10

Is it simpler to build a better space toilet, or to build a ship with centrifugal gravity and use a regular toilet?

It depends on the scope of the mission. If you're going to commercialize long term space travel then you're going to want some form of artificial gravity.

If you build a better toilet you need a better pooper to use it. And they need to use it correctly every time or you're going to need a really good waste cleaning and disinfecting strategy for your ship.

Re: Let's talk space toilets

#48

Post by lostlogin »

fiftyacorn wrote: post #37
trollbridge wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a major plumbing problem once, in a rented commercial space. The toilet simply clogged constantly and I had to snake it almost every time. The landlord finally relented and had an expert plumber come out. 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 hi…

My degree is chemical engineering and thats pretty close to a degree in plumbing

Well regarded cardiac surgeon Barratt-Boyes supposedly had a brother who was a good plumber.

This always made me happy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Barratt-Boyes

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