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NASA is about to launch an upgraded microgravity toilet to the International Space Station
Oct 1, 2020
Late Thursday evening, a Northrop Grumman rocket is set to take off from the Virginia coast, carrying an advanced space toilet for the astronauts on the International Space Station. Touted as smaller and lighter than the current toilets on the ISS, the new commode is also supposed to be more accommodating for women astronauts needing to use the space facilities.
Called the Universal Waste Management System , the toilet is one of two upgraded toilets that NASA is making to the tune of $23 million. While the one launching tonight is destined for the ISS, a second identical toilet will also be added to NASA’s future deep-space crew capsule, called Orion. NASA plans to send astronauts to the Moon using Orion in the coming years, and the Universal Waste Management System, or UWMS, will be inside the capsule for anyone needing a pitstop along the way.
Since this toilet will be traveling into deep space, NASA needed something compact but just as efficient as the toilets of the past. Heavier and bulkier objects are more expensive and more difficult to launch. So NASA did its best to optimize the size of the toilet, making it 65 percent smaller and 40 percent lighter than current ISS toilets. The agency also says engineers have made the toilet more energy efficient. “You can imagine that optimizing those can help out in lots of ways because space and power are at a premium on a spacecraft,” Melissa McKinley, the project manager for the UWMS at NASA, said during a press conference last week.
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