The mission commander Artemis II to the Moon, the astronaut POT Reid Wisemanstated this Thursday that the toilet they used during the space expedition “it was wonderful” despite the problems it caused, which he said were associated with the ventilation system.
“I just want to say, 100% upfront: It was a wonderful toilet. The toilet worked great. Where we had a problem – and it was a real problem, no doubt – was in our primary vent line.”Wiseman said in a press conference from the NASA facilities in Houston (Texas).
“The toilet flushed perfectly, but when the liquid came out of the bottom, it got stuck in our ventilation line,” added the commander of the four-crew mission, which returned to Earth last Friday after orbiting the Moon.
The toilet in the Orion capsule where the astronauts were traveling was one of the unexpected protagonists of Artemis II, which began to fail shortly after launch, despite being an investment of 23 million dollars.
1 / 29 | This was the return of the Orion capsule to Earth. Artemis II mission pilot Victor Glover descends from the recovery helicopter onto a Navy ship in the Pacific off the coast of California. -NASA
NASA explained during the course of the mission that the toilet had difficulties with the wastewater evacuation system, particularly in the part related to urine, and recommended that astronauts use alternative methods, similar to adult diapers.
“Our tank can only hold, I don’t know, I’m guessing, maybe less urine; the tank holds that and then it has to be emptied,” Wiseman explained, noting that “it was fun to watch that thing empty for the first two days.”
“They are like a billion small ice flakes launched into deep space,” he described.
But he indicated that this primary ventilation line “was obstructed or blocked,” for reasons that are still unknown, and he asked the engineers of that piece to “not lower their heads.”
“It was an excellent piece of equipment. And what did we learn? Well, there are always things we need to improve,” he summarized.
Along with Wiseman, the rest of the members of Artemis II – Christina Koch and Victor Glover, from NASA, and Jeremy Hansen, from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), shared this Thursday anecdotes and memories of the ten-day mission, which made them the first humans to reach the orbit of the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.