Houston, we have a smelly problem
May 30th 2008 11:24
Category: No Category
Space toilet
The only toilet aboard the space station is out of order. The problem could be further compounded with the launch of the space shuttle, which is on schedule for liftoff on May 31.
Well there is another toilet-all -be -it an outside toilet aboard the Soyuz craft which always remains attached to the station for emergency evacuations. The problem with the toilet on the space station is it uses air instead of gravity to move the waste.
During normal use last week, the crew reported a strange noise and the fan stopped working. After troubleshooting the problem, astronauts aboard the station first replaced the air/water separator then the filter. While these repairs bought them a little time, the toilet seems to be down again.
NASA plans to include a duplicate toilet, normally used in Houston for training, in the payload aboard Discovery, which is set to launch on Saturday. The next stopgap measure involves technology dating back to the early days of spaceflight, plastic bags with sticky openings. The station does have an emergency supply of these bags.
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