Space toilet flushes again
Reports on the International Space Station鈥檚 new cutting-edge lab were a little lost in the shuffle this week. There was a much sillier story for science journalist to cover: the station鈥檚 broken toilet.
After days of giggling, the shuttle Discovery delivered a replacement pump, and we learned last night that the new piece was in place. Even the shuttle crew, whose real mission was to deliver and attach the $950 million 鈥淜ibo鈥� laboratory, had a sense of humor about it. After docking Monday, mission commander Mark Kelly asked, 鈥淵ou looking for a plumber?鈥�
Jokes aside, the whole story made me wonder how a space loo works. There鈥檚 no gravity, which makes everything involving liquids a little more dicey. Here鈥檚 what I found:
In case the new parts didn鈥檛 work, NASA had a tried-and-true backup, but it鈥檚 not a pretty one. The reports: 鈥淭he alternate methods of waste disposal, including plastic bags with adhesive and bactericide known as 鈥楢pollo bags,鈥� because they were used by early astronauts, are not 鈥榩articularly pleasant,鈥� Kirk Shireman, the head of the station program, said on Tuesday in a media briefing.鈥�
Back on the sillier side of things, The Lede, a NYTimes blog, posted a nice of some of the media鈥檚 better space-toilet farces. My favorite was a that riffs off the .
[Via CNET's ]
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