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This unusual-looking space toilet will be tested by ISS astronauts.
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A newly designed space bathroom that is better suited to women is heading to the International Space Station. The new toilet was inside a cargo ship that took off successfully Friday night at 6:16 p.m. Pacific time from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. The astronauts will test the toilet over the next few months.
Weighing nearly 100 pounds (45 kilograms) and standing 28 inches (71 centimeters) tall, the new toilet is roughly half the size of the two Russian-built toilets already in use on the ISS. This new toilet is 65% smaller and almost half as light as current ISS toilets in use.
The new, smaller toilet will be able to fit NASA’s Orion capsules, which will travel to the moon on future missions.
As previously reported, the new toilet is designed with a sloping seat, a new shape and redesigned funnels for urination.
Here’s a closer look at the new space toilet to be used on the ISS.
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The microgravity toilets used in the ISS use suction to prevent debris from escaping during a bathroom break, but the new system is reshaped to better fit the female anatomy. The toilet is also better suited to capture more waste than before.
“Cleaning up a mess is a big deal. We don’t want failures or leaks,” Johnson Space Center project manager Melissa McKinley told The Guardian. “Let’s say everything floats in weightlessness.”
The new toilet system also has a lower mass than previous systems, is easier to use, provides greater comfort and performance for the crew, and treats urine so that it can be safely processed by the ship’s recycling systems. space, “according to a NASA report previously released in June.
The toilet will be placed in its own cubicle next to the old one on the US side of the space station. The toilet that is currently on the US side of the space station was designed in the 1990s.
This new Universal Waste Management System toilet will remain on the ISS until the end of the space station’s useful life.
What life is like on the International Space Station (photos)
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