Questions tagged [waste]
Questions about waste products generated from human activity or supporting a human environment
25 questions
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What does trash from ISS consist of?
How much does it cost to return 1 kg from the ISS to the Earth? What are the parameters influencing this price?
What kinds of waste does the ISS dispose of? To mind come:
human waste*
household items ...
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What were the sizes of the roll-on cuffs called?
Early astronauts used roll-on cuffs to collect their urine. I remember hearing once that these cuffs were available in 3 sizes, but the NASA had to change the names of the sizes because astronauts ...
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Pee processing in space
Do astronauts drink each their own pee or is there a common pee container where all pee get collected and processed? It's clear to me that the obtained water must be sterile, but even then, I imagine ...
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What happens to the ISS waste? [duplicate]
How is the waste managed on ISS?
I guess there are three main waste types: two human waste (liquid and solid) and various packaging for food and substances for experiments.
Are they recycled or sent ...
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Urine collection for early russian astronauts
Alan Shepard infamously urinated in his spacesuit on the launchpad. His flight was supposed to be short, so nobody thought that he might have to go during the mission. In the following space missions, ...
- 5,108
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If an astronaut needs to go to the toilet during launch, what can they do and what do they need to do?
It is clear everyone that going to space is a big deal for almost everyone, and it is a known fact to me that whenever I do something important for myself, pretty much everything goes out of my body ...
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Was there a backup plan in case the Shuttle toilet malfunctioned?
What was the plan in case the Space Shuttle toilet malfunctioned? How were the astronauts expected to then handle their waste? Did they carry Apollo-style fecal collection assemblies (poop bags)? ...
- 48.4k
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Was there really a shuttle toilet training device with a "boresight camera"?
Was there really a shuttle toilet training device with a camera looking up at the user's fundament? This seems a bit undignified to say the least.
- 189k
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Will the Artemis lunar landers provide some privacy?
As we learned in Did astronauts on the moon poop in front of each other the Apollo lunar landers provided no privacy. The Artemis missions will have members of both sexes, so privacy becomes a bit ...
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Did Apollo leave poop on the moon?
If you google the question, you will find an abundance of sources discussing the alleged fact that the Apollo missions left bags of fecal matter on the moon. A conversation on reddit got me looking ...
- 23.8k
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What were the "pills" that were added to solid waste in Apollo 7?
In the BBC News Worldservice podcast 10, 9, 8, 7: The dramatic missions that made the Moon landing possible told by retired astronaut Nicole Stott (Expeditions 20, 21, STS-128 and STS-133) after ...
- 151k
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Did any Apollo astronaut remain disrobed to simplify his waste disposal?
This comment claims
As I recall, at least one of the Apollo crews spent much of the transit time au naturel due to the hassles of waste management.
Is this true to any extent?
(As @OrganicMarble ...
- 48.4k
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Are there any photographs of the frozen waste water after a urine dump in space?
Astronaut Mike Massimino talks about watching the urine freeze outside of the spacecraft. He said they would all watch, it was something beautiful to see.
Are there any photographs of this, or has ...
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Pressurized Organic Oxygen Pods
Human waste could be used in a hydroponics facility to grow algae in space or Mars in pressurized tanks, and the photosynthesis can be used to convert CO2 to breathable oxygen. A carbon dioxide ...
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Did astronauts on the moon poop in front of each other?
I know about the Apollo pooping bag. The question is, in the CSM, was there any space to use it privately? I suppose while coasting towards the Moon they could use the LM, but on the return trip? Any ...
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Current and near-future space suit odor reduction technology
Fox News' Bill Nye says Mars colonies won't happen: 'Are you guys high?' gives some highlights of science educator Bill Nye (The Science Guy)'s thoughts on Mars, moving there, living in artificial ...
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What is in ISS's waste product "brine", and how is it disposed?
According to the Space.com article Astronaut Says It 'Smells Great' Inside the International Space Station (Video):
"We want to increase the level of recycling wastes beyond what we do on the ...
- 151k
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How does methane waste produced by the ISS interact with our Atmosphere?
The ISS uses a Sabatier reactor to recover oxygen from carbon dioxide. This has an output product of methane.
I would imagine that most methane that enters our atmosphere at ground level only reaches ...
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Nudism in space: Why wear clothes anyway?
Currently, doing laundry in microgravity is an unsolved engineering problem. The result is that clean clothes on the International Space Station have become a consumable resource. Clean clothes get ...
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What caused John Glenn to see what he described as "fireflies"?
What caused John Glenn to see what he described as "fireflies"? I've heard three different explanations. If it's true that it was pee and sweat, could you explain how and why it was collected, and ...
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Why vent $CO_2$ and $H_2$ waste products to space on ISS?
In this answer, it's mentioned that waste $CO_2$ and $H_2$ from the Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) are vented into space from ISS.
Are there no other uses for this material ...
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What considerations have been made for waste produced during colonisation?
Has there been any practical investigations into potential resources to make colonisation as waste less as possible?
Obviously I don't expect colonisers to be throwing crisp packets on the floor or ...
user106
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Could waste methane be recycled as propellant on the ISS?
Under standard condition methane burns with oxygen in stoichiometric ratio of 1:2 to liberate 891 kJ/mol of energy. Why is the ISS not making use of the methane, which is expelled as waste instead? ...
- 18.1k
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What happens to waste on the ISS?
I was thinking, and those little plastic bags that hold the astronauts' food have to go somewhere. Where do they go? Are they compacted into a big cube like on WALL-E, and sent out into space, or are ...
user12
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What is the most sustainable method of recycling (human) solid waste on a manned space vessel?
After reading and answering James Jenkins's interesting question on wiping in space, I was curious about the usage of solid waste on a manned space vessel. In his question he mentions recycling solids ...
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