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A broken toilet isn’t much of a problem, unless it’s in orbit 408 kilometers from Earth. Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) faced exactly this problem this week. But it wasn’t just the toilet that caused problems, the oxygen supply was also affected by a breakdown.
Cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin briefed the Moscow flight control center on the latest incidents. It is not the first time that the sanitary facilities and the oxygen supply have caused problems for the residents of the ISS: the bathroom had already failed on October 8 and 10. There was also a recent leak where air had escaped; the crew were able to connect this successfully.
“Nothing threatens the team”
The crew was able to repair all the damage and is not in danger, the Russian space agency Roskosmos announced on Twitter on Tuesday. “All of the station’s systems are working as planned. Nothing threatens the crew or the flight of the ISS. “
According to the Ria Novosti news agency, cosmonaut Iwan Wagner said the problems may have occurred while docking the space capsule the previous week. There is a second bathroom in the American part of the space station. Russians and Americans help each other in the event of a breakdown. However, when the astronauts’ toilet failed in November 2019, the Russian toilet was overloaded. The astronauts even had to wear diapers at times!
It was not until October 5 that the American space freighter Cygnus brought a new toilet for the American part of the base. But how do you use a bathroom in the middle of space? You sit on a kind of tractor seat with a fist-sized hole in the middle, Ulrich Walter, professor of space technology at the Technical University of Munich, explains to “sueddeutsche.de”.
Then, place two supports on the thighs to press them down. NASA even offers a grooming course, which is practiced in a training facility.
This is how a space toilet works
The toilet hole should be as small as possible so that the air pressure is sufficient, because this is how the technology works: the air flows inwards, creating a negative pressure that takes everything with it. This is then pushed down into a cavity, where the liquid leaks out. Urine enters a tank through a hose. The technology is quite complex and the astronaut has to be precise.
There are currently six astronauts on the ISS: Anatoli Iwanischin, Iwan Wagner and American Christopher Cassidy will return to Earth on Thursday. (eb)
