The glamour and excitement of space flight come with some pretty mundane life requirements. One of those is the need for working bathroom facilities.
You can’t exactly call a plumber when you’re in space, but Artemis II astronauts have managed to fix their lunar toilet without one. In a blog post on Thursday, NASA shared that the Orion spacecraft’s commode is now operational, following work by the onboard crew and with help from mission control in Houston.
The Artemis II crew lifted off on Wednesday from Florida and later reported a blinking fault light relating to their toilet. According to the post, “mission control teams successfully assessed the data and worked with the crew to troubleshoot and resolve the issue.”
“The toilet fan is reported to be jammed,” NASA spokesperson Gary Jordan said during live mission commentary, according to the BBC. “Now the ground teams are coming up with instructions on how to get into the fan and clear that area to revive the toilet for the mission.”
A representative for NASA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
During NASA’s Artemis II mission, four astronauts will orbit the moon for 10 days. Landing humans on the moon’s surface will come later, with an Artemis IV mission scheduled for 2028.
Hearing protection for a very loud toilet
Wondering how exactly one even uses a toilet on a spacecraft? A collaboration between Nat Geo and NASA provided a look inside the Artemis II Orion spacecraft, including its moon-bound loo.
Among the most intriguing factoids is that astronauts use handholds and foot tethers to keep themselves on the toilet seat. They even wear hearing protection when going to the bathroom because the suction fan and airflow system is so loud.
The space toilet uses a funnel to trap the waste, and then the automatic airflow device pulls it away and into storage containers, The New York Times reports.
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