Space Woes For Astronauts: Not Easy To Aim Poop In Zero Gravity

Reshmi AR

Space Woes For Astronauts: Not Easy To Aim Poop In Zero Gravity : Peggy Whitson a NASA astronaut offers you a bit of trivia you may not have known. NASA actually trains astronauts to practice how to poop in space, employing training toilets. You read that right—how to poop in space.

The International Space Station has a toilet which was set up in 2008. That's on the American side and to make matters complicated, got flooded. And well, there's one on the Russian side too, which is not quite perfect, but does serve as a back-up.

Peeing is easy enough for the the astronauts—a funnel, a hose and a vacuum helped by a top-end recycling system which turns it into water straightaway.

Also Read: How Human Waste Can Be A Source of Food For Astronauts on Space

Pooping is a task. And a mighty challenging one. Where do you think the difficulty lies? Well, you're doing it in space and into a plastic bag with a small hole. You think that's easy? Think again, because you have to factor into account gravity, for one thing. Imagine poop floating freely in space. Well, that's for real, if you're an astronaut.

Now because poop doesn't get recycled in the way pee does, it is disposed by NASA once in ten days—simply launched out of the International Space Station.