NASA's Next Spacesuit Has A Built-In Toilet So Astronauts Can Even Live In Them If Needed

A lot of everyday tasks we take for granted are a lot tougher to complete in space. Things like preparing a snack, having a drink of water, even sleeping can be a chore, and you can bet that answering the call of nature isn¡¯t easy for anyone either.

Images courtesy: NASA

Now, NASA engineers are working on a new spacesuit prototype that¡¯ll take care of at least one of those thing. The suit, called the Orion Crew Survival Systems Suit (OCSSS) will have what amounts to a built-in toilet, so the crew can live in it for days on end in case of an emergency.

Waste disposal systems haven¡¯t been a part of NASA spacesuits since the days of the Apollo missions in the 1970s, and this new suit will share some of the old system¡¯s characteristics. They¡¯re being developed for the astronauts on NASA¡¯s next manned spacecraft, the Orion, which can carry humans well beyond low-Earth orbit.

While the Orion isn¡¯t a big enough vehicle to go on a nine-month-long journey to Mars, it is capable of carrying humans around the Moon and back. Of course, it¡¯ll have a toilet of its own, but the spacesuit toilets are a contingency, just in case the astronauts have to stay in them for extended periods in the event of a depressurization .

NASA in fact wants the astronauts to be able to survive in their suits for up to six days if needed, meaning they have to be able to eat, urinate, and defecate with the suits on. ¡°That is a really long time,¡± Kirstyn Johnson, the NASA engineer in charge of designing the suit, told Space.com. ¡°To live in a suit with all of your waste right by you for that long of a time, it could get gnarly pretty quickly.¡±

The Apollo urine transfer system

The new suits will include a fecal collection bag, similar to those used in the Apollo suits, and the same catheters for men, that fit over the penis like a condom. These tubes lead to a urine collection bag on the outside of the suit. Unfortunately, the Apollo missions and those after never figured out how to build a urine collection system into the space suits for women. One main problem is that female astronauts don¡¯t have the option of a catheter system for urine collection, as well as the fact that pubic hair can, in microgravity, cause liquids to stick around it and cause problems. Then there¡¯s also the question of how this kind of system would work when the astronaut is on her period.

A possible solution is to have female astronauts remove all pubic hair and go on birth control (to reduce the occurrence of periods) but Johnson says NASA would never ask so much of an astronaut. ¡°You want a design that any normal, functioning woman should be able to use without putting additional requirements on them,¡± he said. ¡°So you have to design something that can basically encompass most of their public hair, while also protecting them from infections without fecal matter getting in the way. Stuff like that.¡±

So far, Johnson and her team are testing a vacuum system that might provide a workaround, but the suit isn¡¯t far enough along to reveal details about. Hopefully, they¡¯ll be ready ready by the time NASA hopes to launch these hopeful spacefarers to the Moon.