Space Station toilet stops working. The **** hits the fan.

[Mike]

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/05/27/space.toilet.ap/index.html

[Rick]

The Russian ASU (Ассенизационно-Санитарная Установка, or "Waste Management System") aboard the ISS has pretty well clapped out following the failure on 21 May of the unit's air/water separator heralded by a "loud noise", according to NASA.

The agency explained last week: "The crew then replaced the separator with a spare unit but reported afterwards that the ASU lacked suction. The crew next replaced the F-V filter insert, which provided good suction for a while but again exhibited weak suction. TsUP/Moscow instructed the crew to deactivate the ASU and use the toilet facility in the Soyuz spacecraft."

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/28/iss_asu_failure/

NASA: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/iss_reports/reports2008/05-21-2008.htm

[Rick]

Relief is at hand for the cross-legged ISS crew in the form of spares for the clapped-out Russian ASU toilet, which have been stowed aboard Space Shuttle Discovery due to blast off tomorrow.

The parts, including a pump, will hopefully allow astronauts to take a bother-free leak. While the ISS's main toilet still works for solid waste, it requires "additional steps for liquid waste" and needs ten minutes maintenance by two crew members after three flushes, according to NASA.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/30/iss_toilet_spares/

[Rick]

No comment: http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20080601

[Carole]

Without meaning to sound too disgusting.  Does any-one know how exactly a space loo works?

a) Does it get ejected out into space?
b) Sent back to Earth at a later date?
c) Incinerated some-how?
d) Re-cycled?

I have a bad feeling it is a). 
In which case there is a lot of unmentionable space debris floating around out there in addition to the mentionable (craft debris etc).

Luckily space is a big place!!!

Carole

Carole

[Rick]

Low Earth Orbit is too crowded for them to just dump stuff into space these days, though they did in the early days. I suspect all the other options do get used though, assuming you can call "burned up on re-entry" a form of incineration.

[Ian]

The ATV is supposed to be filled with rubbish before it's jettisoned, and it will burn up. I would expect that water is recovered beforehand, seeing as it's important and would been to be flown up there.

I would think a lone turd would take too long to de-orbit...

[Rick]

Yeah, they use the cargo craft as rubbisb bins for dumping stuff they're happy to see burn up on re-entry. Aside from the odd golf ball and paper plane I don't think they've thrown anything small overboard deliberately in quite a while. Accidentally, on the other hand...

When we visited UKC a while back and saw bits of LDEF there, I remember being told that some of the impacts on LDEF were of frozen drops of urine. When it's moving at a relative speed of several thousand miles an hour it doesn't really matter all that much what it's made of.

[mickw]

I thought they recycled urine by treating it then using it for drinking or for washing etc. 

[Rick]

I thought they recycled urine by treating it then using it for drinking or for washing etc.

Yes, I expect they do. It's expensive getting stuff up to ISS so the stuff they dump must be stuff they really can't use any more! 

[Rick]

The International Space Station's troublesome toilet is now sucking like a good 'un after Oleg Kononenko yesterday fitted the new pump delivered by Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-124.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/05/iss_toilet_fixed/

Space station crew repair toilet

Crew members have fixed a toilet at the International Space Station with a pump delivered by the shuttle Discovery.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7436975.stm

[Fay]

The mind boggles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mike]

Apparently if you use it when not 'going to the toilet' it doubles up as a sex toy.

[Ian]

euchhh 

but then it's a Russian toilet...

[Fay]

Hope they do not all come back as eunuchs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ian]

Hope they do not all come back as eunuchs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

due to the microgravity, the risks associated with falling toilet seats are significantly reduced on the ISS.

However, there is a much greater risk of getting it caught in the flies, they're big mean zips on them spacesuits.

[Ian]

The Registers take on the water recycling machine incident.

Notable mostly, I think, for the coining of "re-wee machine". Coming soon to a Carling brewery near you...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/21/iss_urine_module_fire_alarm/

[Rick]

Well, I guess it's a bit more imaginative than the tabloids' "wee-cycling"... 

Here's some more from El Reg:

ISS urinal/drinks-machine combo still buggy

Read it here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/24/urine_recycler_troubles_at_iss/

NASA's lost toolbag filmed from Earth

The tool bag lost by NASA astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper during an ISS space walk has been filmed sailing over Earth by a veteran satellite observer over the weekend.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/24/nasa_lost_toolbag_filmed_on_earth/

Endeavour ISS gig extended one day

Endeavour's STS-126 mission to the ISS has been extended by one day so crew can "continue troubleshooting" the orbiting outpost's new Water Recovery System, which has proved somewhat bothersome.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/25/endeavour_mission_extended/

[Rick]

ISS drinks dispenser now taking the p*ss

The International Space Station's cantankerous Water Recovery System is now apparently up and running following a few issues with the unit's Urine Processor Assembly (UPA).

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/26/iss_update/

[Rick]

Astronauts have fixed a urine-recycling unit on the International Space Station, needed to support a six-person crew at the research outpost next year.

The mission of the US space shuttle Endeavour was extended by one day to fix the machine, which is designed to convert urine into drinking water.

The equipment had failed several times since it was delivered a week ago.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7748818.stm

[mickw]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Tucked away with the new hardware set to launch into space aboard NASA's shuttle Discovery on Wednesday night is a desperately-needed spare part for the International Space Station's urine recycler.
The urine recycling system, which was first delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) last November by the shuttle Endeavour, has been malfunctioning since it was installed. Though the technology may sound icky, it is considered vital for the space station to accommodate crews of six astronauts, double its current occupancy of three.

More:   http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090311/sc_space/spaceurinerecyclertogetfixitpart

Apparently the urine was starting to taste like lager 

[Rick]

Technical snags continue to bedevil one of the key new technologies being installed aboard the International Space Station (ISS): one critical to plans for larger crews. We speak, of course, of the troubled urine-recycler space drinks machine - intended to turn golden astronaut juice into cool, lipsmacking refreshments.

Following earlier troubles in which the Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) triggered fire alarms and then refused to produce any drinks, NASA beverage chiefs arranged to send up replacement machinery aboard the shuttle Discovery, currently docked at the station. ISS crewmember Sandra Magnus, who holds a PhD in engineering, installed the new kit over the weekend.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/23/new_upa_still_playing_up/

[Rick]

Can't use apparently non-existent deluxe US space dunny

Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka has bemoaned an increasingly petty US-Russian spat in which politics apparently threaten the brotherly co-operation which has hitherto marked life aboard the International Space Station.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/31/iss_toilet_row/

(It must be a slow news day. Where are all those G20/anti-capitalist riots...)

[mickw]

ISS Skipper Mike Fincke gives a video tour of the orbiting lab's new space toilet.

http://www.space.com/common/media/video/player.php?videoRef=SP_090303_expedition18

[mickw]

This champagne tastes like p1ss

Astronauts took a swig of recycled urine water to toast their successful testing of the wastewater recycling system on the International Space Station.

U.S. astronaut Michael Barratt called drinking the recycled water the stuff of science fiction, and cracked several jokes during the inauguration of the system known as ECLSS.

"We have these highly attractive labels on our water bags that essentially say 'brought to you by ECLSS,' and 'drink when real water is over 200 miles away,'" Barratt said.

More:  http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090520-space-urine.html

[Rick]

NASA's deluxe International Space Station toilet clapped out yesterday, meaning the 13 astronauts currently aboard the orbiting outpost will temporarily have to share the Russian "Waste Management System" and space shuttle Endeavour's facilities.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/20/iss_toilet/

[Rick]

The US's $19m space superloo is once again accepting customer input following a successful repair yesterday by the International Space Station's Expedition 20 commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Frank De Winne.

The Destiny laboratory dunny, aka the "Waste and Hygiene Compartment", clapped out on Sunday, obliging the 13 current residents of the ISS to use either the Russian facilities or those aboard space Shuttle Endeavour.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/21/space_loo_fixed/

[mickw]

Gawd help 'em if the Indians get their act together and set up a takeaway 

[Rick]

The International Space Station's buggy urine-recycling unit has packed up again, according to reports. With the shuttle Atlantis due to visit shortly, temporarily boosting the number of people at the orbiting outpost to 12, it's feared that areas of the station may begin to fill up with containers of astronaut piss awaiting treatment.

The crew of the ISS began drinking their own bodily wastes in May, following a troublesome deployment aboard the station for the quarter-billion-dollar water-replenishment system. The barrel-shaped Urine Processor Assembly in particular proved unreliable, at one point triggering a fire alarm and repeatedly breaking down.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/13/piss_recycler_troubles_ahead_of_atlantis/

[mickw]

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station tackled a tricky repair of their urine recycling system Wednesday while engineers on Earth study two issues on the space shuttle Endeavour.

Station commander Jeffrey Williams is expected to spend hours today replacing a broken urine recycler part and pump inside the orbiting lab's water recovery system while other astronauts unload cargo and prepare for a Thursday night spacewalk.

More:   Taking the Piss

They can all that stuff in orbit but can't fix a toilet 
Sounds like a Challenge for Tommy Walsh