Richard Garriott talks space toilets - SpacePod 2010.05.31

Ah yes, the question that all school kids ask: how do you go to the bathroom in space? Tee hee hee! Well, as it turns out, solid waste is not as easy as you may expect. We caught up with Astronaut Richard Garriott after his presentation at the 2010 International Space Development Conference in Chicago, IL where he told his space waste story. Enjoy!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• iss
• space adventures
• richard garriott
• space toilet
• spacevidcast

[dablommer]

The young lady on the left just found this totally amusing...=)

[supremeon1]

NOW, THIS IS THE REAL SHIT !!! There are many other movies on youtube that describe the toilet, they even show it... but nobody, nobody tells the things that Richard just said now... THIS IS THE MOST EDUCATING MOVIE ABOUT TOILETS I EVER SEEN :)

[Sheron124]

most of womens have that thing when they get talked about genitals and urines ect.... little funny i think thats their vagina that making them that XD

[TheSolarmike]

If the bathroom were to rotate where the center of rotation is the persons head then centrifugal forces would help in this delicate process. They should consider doing this for future missions

[JuggaloOzi]

Trillions of dollars and they couldn't even get the shitter right.

[IIIBLAKEIII]

1:37 Shooting Stars are beer kegs full of shit? hahaha

[bbrockert]

@dablommer The young lady on the left is Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides, founder of Yuri's Night and wife of the CEO of Virgin Galactic, and she's quite charming in person.

[supremeon1]

@dablommer2010 Ah, the lady in the dark shirt... yes, she smiles all the time... but, i don't know why, i think she's not young at all... on the contrary... anyway, what matters is that THIS VIDEO REALLY ROCKS! it's the best on this subject.

[dablommer2010]

@supremeon1 Oh, there's Cariann, always good for a laugh....but nope, about a minute into the clip a young lady in a dark shirt appears and just couldn't stop grinning over the subject matter.

[supremeon1]

@dablommer Are you referring to Cariann Higginbotham? she is cute and funny and she's smiling all the time :) Or, at least on spacevidcast...

[Mawgrim]

@supremeon1 Richard Garriot is showing how science can be fun (and quite funny, actually), without having to sound pretentious or complicated.

I'm positive we'll be hearing a lot from him in the next few years, especially with the increment of civil space flights, suborbital flights or low Earth orbit.

[marvchomer]

I gets me thinking about Mike Collins and the book he wrote (Carrying the Fire) about his experiences as a Gemini and Apollo astronaut. He mentions that they had to basically tape a plastic bag to their ass and poop in it. The bag had a built-in glove shape so they could grab the poop out. Then they had to pop in a germ-killing pill, close it up, knead it all together and store it for disposal on earth. He also mentioned having to do this with another astronaut 2 feet away. Much easier now.