The Space Shuttle Toilet: A Handy Video Tutorial
Posted by Will_Han on Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Being an astronaut requires a lot of heavy lifting, special maneuvering and fielding questions from the public. And few tasks are as complicated – and earn as many questions from the public – as using the space toilet. Mike Massimino, who knows a thing or two about this, takes on a tour of the shuttle toilet trainer – the tiny hole, the vacuum tube, the foot restraints, the self-controlled toilet cam (no, really) – basically everything you need to get strapped in and start purging all that freeze-dried ice cream.
While this may finally justify the government spending $640 on a toilet seat, it’s still enough to really make us really appreciate the virtues of our mundane, low-tech Earth-bound johns.
What “Astro Mike” doesn’t get into is the big political tiff that erupted last year over the oft-clogged facilities on the space station. That whole thing sounded a bit messy.
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