The Artemis II lander is the most important phase of the lunar mission

Artemis II‘s toilet is a moon mission milestone

Posted by KR Callaway edited by Lee Billings

When the astronauts first went to the moon, they did so without a toilet. The Apollo program to install plastic bags and panels was so unregulated and sloppy that crew members found it “absurd” and “irritating,” according to a subsequent NASA report. But now, more than half a century since the last trips to the moon and their toilet problems, four NASA astronauts. Artemis II the mission will take the plane with a high-quality bathroom.

The space agency’s Universal Waste Management System (UWMS)—pronounced “toilet”—is designed to solve long-standing problems facing astronauts and provide a common bathroom experience at the terminal. Lunar astronauts will now be spoiled with amenities that include tails to help them stay stable in microgravity, a system that can handle urine and feces at the same time, functional urine collection devices for both male and female astronauts, and even a door for privacy in the cramped crew capsule.

The new design is more than ten years in the making. The space equipment company Collins Aerospace first entered into a contract with NASA to develop the project in 2015. During that time, the scientists of the project have overcome important issues with the toilets of the past while thinking and meeting the needs of the future so that the same system used by Artemis II Scientists may be involved in lunar and Mars missions in the coming decades.

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“I think of waste management as a design change,” says Melissa McKinley, project manager and principal investigator for NASA’s UWMS team. “The house is built on designs from Apollo, the space shuttle and even the International Space Station…. There’s a lot of learning that goes into it.”

In the cramped quarters of the Apollo crew capsules, the astronauts tied themselves to plastic bags with adhesives and tubes whenever they had to defecate or urinate. Attaching the opaque bags was difficult enough in the weightless conditions, but the astrophysicists had to manually mix in a packet of disinfectant to prevent the accumulation of bacteria and gases in the sealed bag.

The system was prone to leaks, such as during Apollo 10 mission, when the astronauts noticed a “tornado floating in the air,” and during the Apollo 8 mission, when the crew had to chase drops of vomit and faeces that escaped from the room. A NASA report released after the end of the Apollo missions noted that waste disposal “must be given low marks” when it comes to employee satisfaction.

“I wanted to be the first man on Mars,” said astronaut Ken Mattingly during the Apollo 16 mission, after explaining the system. This convinces me that, if we continue with Apollo, I am not interested.

Based on these shocking observations, NASA scientists knew they had to create a more sophisticated system. After all, the historian of science and technology at the City University of New York, David Munns, says: “The toilet is a system that ‘needs intention,’ so if it breaks down, the whole job is at risk.”

So before the space program, they engineered a toilet that could work in a low-gravity environment. It looked like a normal earth toilet but required the astronauts to strap on and use a vacuum tube to prevent waste from floating back into space.

Old toilets in space and the International Space Station (ISS) used this vacuum system—the key difference is that the ISS version used waste water, while the space version pumped it into space. Both of these systems were greatly improved over the “toilets” of the Apollo years but still have major shortcomings. They weren’t built with women’s anatomy in mind and couldn’t handle urine and feces at the same time, and while they gave the appearance of privacy with a veil, there was never a solid door.

UWMS is a space-engineered culmination of all these pent-up problems with user experience. 3D-printed from titanium, its lightweight, modular design means it can easily fit on a wide variety of spacecraft, including the ISS, the Orion capsule for Artemis missions and potential future vehicles yet to be built.

The first version of the UWMS was tested on the ISS in 2020, and the final installation was completed in 2021. It had urine and faeces systems that could be used at the same time, changes to make these systems unisex and a very desirable bathroom door. With some modifications to enable the same system for lunar mission, the UWMS version is also installed in the Orion capsule Artemis IIthe launch of the program’s first staff—and the UWMS project scientists are on the edge of their seats, eager to know if the four project scientists are happy with the plan.

“I’m really excited that the crew is using this,” McKinley said. [waste management] on future Artemis missions and the lunar campaign—as well as the upcoming Mars campaign.”

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