Artemis II toilets are an important step in the lunar mission

On their trips to the Moon, NASA astronauts finally enjoy the comforts of an earthly toilet, like having a door and being able to pee and poop simultaneously.

By KR Callaway edited by Lee Billings

NASA is preparing to launch four astronauts on a pioneering journey around the Moon: the Artemis II assignment. Follow our coverage here.

When astronauts first went to the Moon, they did so without a toilet. The Apollo program’s system of plastic bags and funnels was so heavy and complicated that crew members found it “reprehensible” and “in bad taste” according to a later NASA report. But now, more than half a century after the last crewed lunar trips and their toilet problems, the four NASA astronauts Artemis II The mission will take off with a more spacious bathroom.

The space agency’s universal waste management system (UWMS) – more colloquially referred to as “the toilet” – was created to solve long-standing cleanliness issues faced by astronauts and to provide a more familiar bathroom experience in the final frontier. Lunar astronauts will now be spoiled with equipment including handles to help them stay stable in microgravity, a system capable of handling urine and feces simultaneously, urine collection devices that work for both male and female astronauts, and even a door for the useful illusion of privacy in a cramped crew capsule.

The new design has been in the works for more than a decade. Space infrastructure company Collins Aerospace first contracted with NASA to develop the project in 2015. During that time, project scientists overcame fundamental problems with the old space toilet while imagining and meeting future needs so that the same system used by Artemis II astronauts could be suitable for missions to the Moon and Mars in coming decades.

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“I view waste management as a design evolution,” says Melissa McKinley, project manager and principal investigator of NASA’s UWMS team. “The toilets are inspired by models from Apollo, the Space Shuttle and even the International Space Station… There is so much learning to do. »

In the cramped spaces of the Apollo crew capsules, astronauts attached adhesive-edged plastic bags and tubes each time they had to defecate or urinate. Tying the bulky bags was difficult enough in zero gravity, but the astronauts also had to manually mix a packet of germicide to prevent bacteria and gases from building up in the sealed bag.

The system was notoriously prone to leaks, such as when Apollo 10 mission, when the astronauts noticed “a turd floating in the air”, and during the Apollo 8 mission, when the crew had to chase away drops of vomit and excrement who escaped into the cabin. A NASA report published after the end of the Apollo missions noted that waste disposal “must receive poor marks” regarding crew satisfaction.

“I used to want to be the first man on Mars,” astronaut Ken Mattingly said at the event. Apollo 16 mission, after describing the system. “It convinced me that if we have to go to Apollo, I’m not interested.”

Based on these scathing critiques, NASA scientists knew they needed to create a more streamlined system. After all, “toilets are a ‘mission critical’ system, so if they fail, the entire mission is at risk,” says David Munns, a historian of science and technology at the City University of New York.

So, before the space shuttle program, they designed a toilet that could operate in a low-gravity environment. It looked a lot like a typical Earth toilet, but the astronauts had to strap themselves in and use a suction hose to prevent waste from coming back up into the spacecraft.

Early toilets on the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS) used this vacuum system, with the main difference being that the ISS model recycled some wastewater, while the Space Shuttle version vented it into space. Both systems were significantly improved over the “toilets” of the Apollo years, but still had major limitations. They weren’t built with the female anatomy in mind and couldn’t handle urine and feces at the same time, and while they provided some semblance of privacy with a curtain, there was still no solid door.

UWMS is the aerospace engineering culmination of all those pent-up user experience issues. 3D printed from titanium, its lightweight, standardized design allows it to easily adapt to many types of spacecraft, including the ISS, the Orion capsule of the Artemis missions, and potential future vehicles that have yet to be built.

The first version of the UWMS was tested on the ISS in 2020 and final installation was completed in 2021. It included urine and feces systems that could be used simultaneously, modifications to make these systems more unisex, and the coveted bathroom door. Along with further modifications to help the same system operate during a lunar mission, a version of the UWMS was also installed in the Orion capsule to Artemis IIthe program’s first crewed launch, and UWMS project scientists are on the edge of their seats, eager to find out if the mission’s four astronauts are happy with the design.

“I’m very happy that the crew is using it,” says McKinley. “We’ll know a lot more when this mission returns.” [waste management] on future Artemis missions and the lunar campaign, as well as the upcoming Mars campaign.