"Crew Dragon appears to have the ability to piss."
Pee Problems
The story of the broken space toilet goes on.
SpaceX announced that the latrines mechanics will be redesigned after Inspiration4 astronauts encountered problems with their Crew Dragon capsules toilets.
Bill Gerst is a consultant for the company, and a former NASA human spaceflight chief. Joey Roulette, The New York Times' space reporter, stated that the problem occurred when a tube that delivers urine into a container burst. A Rube Goldberg-esque sequence ensued when the tube broke, causing urine to leak into a fan which sprayed urine all over the floor.
The new commode will have a fully-welded system which will hopefully stop the pee tube ever from breaking again. However, in space, it is impossible to know.
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SpaceX's Bill Gerst explains that Crew Dragons toilet mechanics have been redesigned following the Inspiration4 mission toilet problems. The tube that delivers urine to a container burst during the mission. It leaked into the fan, which then sprayed it in the area below the capsule floor. Joey Roulette (@joroulette) October 25, 2021
Piss Resistant
SpaceX was curious if other spacecraft might experience the same issues after the Crew Dragon craft toilet problem. SpaceX asked astronauts from the International Space Station for assistance in investigating the Crew Dragon craft that was docked at the station.
The crew confirmed that the craft toilet had been damaged with an inspection camera. It also revealed that the toilet had sprayed human urine into the space below the floor.
SpaceX was concerned about the possibility of the waste slurry corroding the hardware because it contains Oxon, a chemical that astronauts use to mix their urine with. In comments to Roulette, Gerst stated that SpaceX conducted extensive testing on Earth. Researchers soaked aluminum components in Oxon-urine mixture in order to determine its effects.
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They discovered that corrosion was probably minimal in the low-humidity environment at the station.
Roulette tweeted Crew Dragon seems to be resilient to piss.
It is hilarious to see that the space tourists' broken toilet is one of the most interesting stories. It turned out to be an excellent case study in creative, but gross problem solving.
Continue reading: More about the space tourist toilet issue: The Space Tourist Toilet Issues were so bad that they set off an alarm
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