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ISS residents calling the space plumber |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
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 Of all the expensive complicated things that could have broken on the International Space Station, it had to be the toilet. For the rest of us Earth-bound humans, having one commode for three people is no big problem. If it breaks, you can use the neighbors and call the plumber to fix it for a few dollars. In space, however, nobody can hear you scream inside the bathroom. There is one toilet on the ISS, inside the Russian-built Zvezda module, and in recent days it’s started to act up.
 Commodes are a tricky thing when working in space, as they have to be capable of operating in the zero-gravity environment. As such, they are not only expensive, but look completely different than what we’re used to here on the surface. The toilet on the ISS works primarily with an air pump to remove excrement of both the solid and liquid varieties.
The toilet started acting up a few days ago, forcing US Astronaut Garrett Reisman and Expedition 17 crewmates Russian Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergei Volkov have been forced to use the facilities aboard the docked Soyuz spacecraft, which is not much roomier than the toilet itself on the station.
They have since managed to restore the toilet to what they have deemed to be ‘manual mode,’ which uses extra water to flush the toilet instead of air suction. Thankfully for the three men aboard, the glitch only affects the toilet’s liquid waste collection system. Spare parts for the toilet will be launched with the space shuttle Discovery on Saturday. The malfunctioning part, termed a gas-liquid separator assembly, is a 16 kg pump that measures about 45 cm by 20 cm.
A NASA special envoy made an emergency trip to Russia to retrieve the pump. Currently en route back to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the pump is scheduled to arrive this evening and will be loaded onto Discovery early on Thursday. Several spare parts and tools will have to be removed from the shuttle’s mid-deck to make room for the pump.
Discovery is currently scheduled to launch on Saturday at 5:02 PM EDT, and will carry the second portion of JAXA’s massive Kibo Laboratory module – the size of a touring bus – in addition to the gas-liquid separator assembly.
Even when the pump is replaced, the toilet will still be the only one aboard the ISS, which currently supports up to three astronauts. NASA has arranged with Roskosmos to pay $19 million for a second space toilet to be installed on the US side of the station. NASA claims that it is cheaper to pay Russia to build it then to try and figure out how to do it on their own.
Discuss: TrekUnited Forum
A poop question, Sir?
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"They say time is the fire in which we burn."
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