NASA sends a new Space toilet for astronauts to ISS

A newly-prepared NASA space toilet for astronauts who live on the International Space Station (ISS) was launched by a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft from Wallops Island, Virgina, where NASA’s Flight Facility located in.

The spacecraft, carrying about 8,000 pounds of scientific equipment, commercial products and other cargo is expected to arrive at the ISS on Monday, Oct. 5, according to a NASA statement.

What makes this transportation crucial is that the cargo includes a 23-million-dollar space toilet, the Universal Waste Management System (UWMS), that will be tested by the crew of the space station for possible future long-distance missions, such as the Moon and Mars.

NASA’s astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969. He went down the ladder and sounded: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” The US-based agency is aspiring to return to Earth’s only natural satellite in 2024. 

Within the scope of Artemis program, the first woman is planned to land on the Moon in the aforementioned year. Journey to the Red Planet is another goal of the agency that is expected to put into practice in 2030. 

Surely, the human body works well according to our planet’s conditions; however, things are changing in space. For deep space missions, improved efficiency play a key role for life processes in human beings. Namely, human biological processes face difficulties off-planet due to lack of gravity. 

Ease of use and comfort of the new potty comes first, and it will be quite useful for both men and women there, except some anatomical difference. Weightier and colossal loads are more expensive and troublesome to blast off.

So UWMS was designed 65 percent smaller and 40 percent lighter than the current toilet on the station. For long duration missions, the system will help recycling urine into water for further use. To exemplify, astronauts will drink the reacquired water after it is filtered.

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti shows how to use the toilet on the International Space Station.

In an AskNASA video, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir explained how the toilet does work in a microgravity environment.

“We actually use, like a vacuum system. So imagine if you have a vacuum cleaner and you are sucking things down. We turn on a big fan, and so that’s pulling everything down into the toilet.”

Jessica Meir

There is a long funnel that is attached to a hose and used to collect all of the urine. The funnel was completely reshaped in accordance with the female anatomy.

“Particularly this is a concern when the crew members are trying to do dual ops, when they are doing both defecation and urination at the same time.”

Melissa McKinley, project manager of UWMS

Fan of the system pulls through to collect everything and keep it contained. This is described as the most important part on the space station because crew members would not want to have things floating around.

The orbital station will increase its capacity, having another toilet onboard the space station. It will be added to NASA’s crew capsule, Orion, designed for deep space exploration which includes to the outskirts of the Moon and Mars.

Astronauts of the ISS will be able to continue to test and refine the technology, used in toilet, that will be used in the Orion spacecraft when astronauts return to the Moon.

In 2013, the then ISS commander Chris Hadfield drinks reclaimed water.