Space Toilets (How Do They Work?)
Space toilets, and how toilets are used in space and interesting topic that many people might wonder about. Whether you’re in your living room or orbiting thousands of miles above Earth…when you gotta go, you gotta go!
But when you’re in the middle of space, something simple like going to the bathroom can turn into a major challenge. It’s kinda gross to think about what might happen if an astronaut tried to flush a regular toilet.
So how do astronauts go to the bathroom in space?
Space Toilets
Each spaceship is equipped with a unisex toilet. The toilet itself looks like a fancier version of a normal toilet, but a few tweaks take place.
The space toilet is comparable to a commode that holds solid wastes and a urinal for liquid wastes. A funnel goes over the genital area allowing both men and women to urinate standing up, although they also have the option of sitting down.
To prevent the astronauts from floating away in zero gravity, the space toilet comes equipped with foot restraints and a toe bar to slip your feet under.
The toilet also has a thigh bar that pulls down over your lap like a roller coaster seat. The astronauts fasten themselves to the toilet, then a device similar to a vacuum cleaner sucks any wastes away.
To make sure the waste doesn’t float around the ship, the space toilet uses flowing air instead of water to flush the toilet. The air pulls the waste away from the astronaut’s body and flushes it. After the air is filtered, removing bacteria and odors, it’s returned to the living cabin.
The toilet isn’t exactly first class, but it’s still not quite as bad as the Maximum Absorbency Garment diapers that astronauts sometimes had to use on missions like the Apollo moon trips. Basically, it’s a high-tech diaper they wore before modern toilet technology came into play.
Where Does All the Waste Go?
It’s not going to come barreling into the atmosphere and into your living room. Solid wastes are dehydrated, compressed, and kept on-board in a storage container. They dispose of them once the ship has landed. They release the liquid waste and it stays in space.
On the International Space Station (ISS), they recycle liquid waste in a special water treatment plant that turns back into drinking water. Solid waste goes into a plastic bag. Each time someone goes to the bathroom, the bag clamps down and seals. They collect the bags and place them into a special craft that launches into space.
And yes, every now and then the system fails, and what astronauts call “brown trouts” escape into space. It’s the humor behind space toilets!
Final Thoughts on Space Toilets
Just a quick caution if you ever need us to perform a toilet repair in space. Our travel fee doesn’t come cheap. 😉
In conclusion, using the bathroom in space is an interesting concept. Astronauts are capable this way. If you didn’t know how astronauts used the toilet in space, well, now you know!
Call 1-Tom-Plumber
Of course, back on Earth, we never charge travel fees. So don’t hesitate to contact us here or call us at 1-Tom-Plumber (1-866-758-6237). We will immediately handle any emergency plumbing, drain, and water damage problem, including excavation of underground water lines and sewer main lines.
