How many astronauts does it take to use a toilet?
June 3, 2008
Turns out if your toilet breaks you need THREE! Okay, if you are going to build a space station with Russian parts you should always have a backup plan.
Other title for this post considered, “If you poop in space can anyone smell it?”
I was shocked to learn that the International Space Station only had one toilet! One toilet for the a space station? The crew of the space station, one American and two Russians have been using a hand pump to flush for the past week or so. Evidently it is a VERY big deal to use the hand pump (one astronaut to use the toilet and two to flush it).
The plan to fix the toilet was simple, overnight a new pump from Japan to the U.S. shuttle Discovery and fly the pump up to the station. This is exactly what happened on Monday. In their infinite wisdom NASA decided to send seven more astronauts to the station. Now there are ten astronauts on the International Space Station and not a single working toilet. Today Russian officials told Interfax that ALL ten astronauts might need to evacuate the station.
First, ten people sharing a single toilet is pretty gross. Ten people sharing a single non-working toilet is even worse. Ironically the International Space Station was designed and built through consensus - I think this is a great example of how a consensus can be very short sighted.
