During Saturday’s press conference, the chairman of the Mission Management Team, a NASA engineer named John Honeycutt, was asked about the public’s fascination with Orion’s toilet.
He said he understood the interest. “I think toilet fixation is part of human nature,” he said. Honeycutt added that it’s not a risk to the mission, but said that if astronauts were essentially camping in space, the current setup makes the whole situation a little more difficult. “I know we’re in a good state, but I’d really like it to be in the best state possible,” he said.
It’s worth noting that space baths are difficult. On Earth there is plenty of water and gravity to aid in the toileting process. In space it is much more challenging. The Apollo astronauts simply used bags. The space shuttle bathroom broke down from time to time. There are four bathrooms on the International Space Station, where there is more volume and plenty of recycled water to work with, so it’s less of an issue.
Space toilets ultimately need to work
This is not a trivial matter.
One can get away with using the bathroom during trips to the Moon. Going to Mars, which requires months in space, is a different matter. If the toilet breaks on the way to Mars, there is a non-zero probability that the crew will die. That’s why it’s great to test these systems now, at Orion. This is really the purpose of this test flight: to ensure that life support systems are working for the crew, identify problems and implement solutions in the future.
Overall, the Artemis II mission continues to go splendidly. NASA Orion deputy program manager Debbie Korth said Saturday that the spacecraft is performing “remarkably well” and that the vehicle’s overall performance has “pleasantly surprised” engineers working on the program.
In fact, everything is going so well that much of the attention has been focused on frozen urine. And considering all the things that could go wrong on a dangerous deep space trip like this, a little problem like this seems like a big win.
