What about an astronaut who has an urge to use the toilet?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

On May 5, 1961, NASA launched a man into space for the second time, after the first unsuccessful attempt. Live broadcasting has riveted millions of Americans to their television screens. The hero of the day was astronaut Alan Shepard. Due to various technical problems, the launch of the ship was constantly postponed, and although the flight was only 15 minutes, Shepard had been in a spacesuit in the Freedom 7 capsule for the fourth hour and he really wanted to write.

Difficulties of Americans

While viewers, following the reporters, wondered what the astronaut was thinking at such a grandiose moment, there was a wild commotion at the Mission Control Center. Alan said that there was no strength to endure any longer, and the specialists were in a terrible hurry to decide what to do. The fact is that no one expected that the flight would be delayed, and, accordingly, there was no opportunity to go to the toilet for the astronaut.

Finally the command came: "Do it right into the suit." Experts decided that it was not dangerous, except that it was now impossible to control the beating of the astronaut's heart. The electrodes that gave these signals went crazy as soon as the warm stream reached them. But the flight was successful.

Alan Shepard

The second American astronaut Gus Grissom was quite ready for toilet problems. According to legend, he flew to the suborbit in a giant diaper made up of several female pads. Adult diapers were not yet available at the time.

Later, when the Americans began to fly into orbit, astronauts began to be equipped with a "more advanced" system. Special urine bags collected urine, which was stored in the ship until the end of the flight, and during the Apollo program they began to be thrown into outer space.

To solve a more complex physiological problem, the Americans glued a special bag with an inner wall covered with an absorbent material to the anus with adhesive tape. After relief, the astronaut cleaned the body of impurities with a special protrusion of this bag, then carefully peeled it off, added a preservative inside and threw the sealed bag into the trash can.

For privacy, during this process, the astronauts were allowed to turn off the onboard video camera. According to the American periodicals of those years, there were cases when such a package came unstuck at an inopportune moment. Including because of this, many astronauts were depressed by such a system, but before the appearance of the Shuttle, they had to put up with it. In order to somehow alleviate the suffering of space explorers, NASA developed products for them that allowed them to use the packages as little as possible.

Taking care of the astronaut

In the USSR, they initially prepared not for a 15-minute suborbital flight of a person, but for a very real orbital one. Therefore, the issues of life support of astronauts in space were approached thoroughly. If the Americans did not provide their astronaut with even the simplest urinal, then Gagarin, who flew three weeks earlier, could, if necessary, satisfy both small and large needs in flight.

Such exceptional concern for the first cosmonaut today may seem strange, but everything is explained by the fact that an “off-standard” option was considered if Vostok did not leave orbit on command at the right moment. And in this case, it was supposed to land in 3-5 days, when the "Vostok" was supposed, according to the laws of ballistics, to independently leave the satellite orbit. In this case, the so-called ACS, that is, "sewage and sanitary device", was developed.

But, since the descent from orbit went according to plan, Gagarin used this device only for a small need, and then, most likely, out of curiosity. As you know, Gagarin, contrary to the scheduled start-up schedule for the minutes, stopped the bus and went to the toilet shortly before the flight.

It's easier with girls

In the USSR, Korolev entrusted the development of an automated control system for cosmonauts to Machine-Building Plant No. 918 (now OAO NPP Zvezda). The main task of this enterprise was to create a spacesuit and an ejection seat, but since the first cosmonauts had to use a sewage device without leaving their seat and without taking off their spacesuit, they decided that its development should be entrusted to Zvezda.

The first ACS appeared in astronaut dogs. The excrement was sucked out from under the tail after a certain period of time, and moss was used to absorb the unpleasant odor. By the way, have you ever wondered why almost all astronaut dogs were bitches?

It turns out, also because it was a little more difficult to develop a sewage device for males. However, the first such systems were not perfect: it happened that the dogs returned to Earth in a dirty form. ACS for people was a much more serious development and was created from scratch.

Belka and Strelka

Basics of "construction"

"The principle of ACS has not changed since the first‘Vostoks, "said Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Belov, a designer at NPP Zvezda. “In zero gravity, a separate intake of liquid and solid waste is used, and here the earth's gravity is replaced by a vacuum suction.”

To satisfy a small need, even in the very first systems, the astronaut opened the tap that connected his urine bag with the urine collector. At the same time, the fan automatically turned on and pulled a portion of the liquid into the urine collector, where it was absorbed by the absorbent material, and the air involved in the process was purified from harmful and unpleasant odors in a special deodorizing filter.

Scheme of the ACS of the transport ship "Soyuz"

For solid waste in the receiving device, temporarily placed under the astronaut, there was an insert. The elastic curtains at the inlet of the liner were rolled up in preparation for the flight, leaving the entrance open. At the end of the process, the astronaut used sanitary napkins, then dropped the liner curtains, and they completely covered the contents.

And so that during the time when the curtains of the liner were still open, the waste was kept inside, the fan provided the flow of air. Moreover, the walls of the insert were two-layer - porous on the inside and sealed on the outside, while the bottom, on the contrary, was porous on the outside and sealed on the inside: thanks to this, the waste could not leak due to the created vacuum.

The system was quite simple to use and more satisfactory in terms of hygiene compared to the American one.

ACS 8A was used at the Mir orbital station in 1986-1987

If the first ACS only remotely resembled an earthly toilet, then decades later, progress became inevitable. The current toilets are already close to their earthly counterparts both in terms of ease of use and in appearance. Only they are much more expensive and take more time to use.

Firstly, if you are in great need, you need to strap on the toilet seat: this is done not only for convenience, but also because in the space toilet a person partly turns into a projectile with a jet engine. And secondly, there is no sewage system in space and astronauts have to spend some time on waste disposal.