|
|
 |
 |
Toilet Troubles Major Headache for Space Station
When your toilet breaks, do you call an astronaut or a plumber? If the toilet is part of the orbiting International Space Station you had better call both. The US space shuttle Discovery blasted into space on Saturday. Part of the crew's mission is to fix the space station's only toilet.
It broke a week ago and has been a headache for the three crewmembers living on board. It takes three flushes and ten minutes of maintenance to keep the toilet working. The new parts came from Russia. It'll be a huge relief when it's working like it should.
The toilet system cost NASA 19 million dollars. Going to the bathroom in space is complicated, because there's no gravity. The last thing you want to do when you're on the toilet is start floating away. The space toilet has straps and bars to hold a person. Then a fan system sucks away the waste, otherwise it might blast off on its own.
After a crewmember finishes up, the solid waste is launched into space. It falls to Earth and burns up in the atmosphere on its way down. The liquid waste is actually recycled. It can be turned into oxygen, or cleaned up to use as drinking water. Suddenly, being an astronaut doesn't sound so exciting, does it?
I'm Adelbert and that's what happened in science this week!
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
