America's first astronaut, Alan Shepard, took that first suborbital flight of 15 minutes on May 15, 1961. The expected flight time was so short that NASA assumed no toilet facilities would be needed. However, Shepard had to endure several hours in his Mercury capsule before lift-off due to launch delays. You can imagine the results, but it wasn't pretty.

By the time NASA began launching Gemini, astronauts were urinating into relief tubes and the resulting contents were dumped into space. There was a rumor that someone had mounted a placard on the instrument panel with the instruction: "DO NOT FLUSH OVER FREE WRORLD."

By the time the Apollo Lunar Program came about, astronaut conveniences had improved, but fell short of the comforts of home. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the lunar surface almost 51 years ago on July 20, 1969 and returned to Earth after a total trip time of 195 hours.

In order to endure the trip without a toilet, lunar astronauts had to urinate into a roll-on cuff and poop into storage bags for later disposal. Many such packages were left on the lunar surface.

Finally, a make-shift toilet was installed on the Skylab space station that was launched in 1973. By the 1980s, a much more sophisticated toilet was installed in the Space Shuttle Orbiter and referred to as the Waste Collection System (WCS). This system employed air flow and rotating fans to distribute solid waste for in-flight storage.

In order to properly use the WCS, astronauts had to endure hours of training. A hose device was used for urination, but for defecation a 4-inch diameter hole in the seat was used. Let's leave the rest to your imagination. Suffice to say that NASA built a simulator with a video camera, while others watched and made jokes.

There are two toilets on the International Space Station (ISS), one each on Zvezda and Tranquility modules. These make use of a fan-driven suction system similar to the WCS. This design has been in use for about two decades.

Just last year NASA sent a new $23 million toilet to the ISS, known as the Universal Waste Management System. It took NASA six years to come up with the design for the new, high-tech porta potty. If it performs as expected, a second will travel to the moon as part of NASA's upcoming Artemis 2 mission. If successful the new toilet may be used on future crewed lunar and Mars missions.

Related Links
Launchspace
Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The Space Media Network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceMediaNetwork Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceMediaNetwork Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Axiom Space reveals historic first private crew to visit ISS
Houston TX (SPX) Jan 27, 2021
Axiom Space on Tuesday announced its crew for humankind's first flight of a group of private individuals to a Low Earth Orbit destination - the first-ever entirely private mission proposed to fly to the International Space Station (ISS). The proposed historic Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) will consist of: former NASA astronaut and Axiom vice president Michael Lopez-Alegria as commander; American entrepreneur and non-profit activist investor Larry Connor as pilot; Canadian investor and philanthropist Mark ... read more