A fan in the Universal Waste Management System aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft jammed during the Artemis II lunar flyby, forcing use of a Collapsible Contingency Urinal while astronaut Christina Koch worked with Mission Control to troubleshoot.
The Orion toilet relies on fan-driven airflow in microgravity and is loud enough that astronauts wear hearing protection; the jam prevented normal urine collection into the onboard tank.
NASA carried a backup Collapsible Contingency Urinal (CCU) that one crew member used before the fan was restored, and the agency confirmed the fecal collection capability of the waste management system remained usable, NASA director of flight operations Norm Knight said.
The CCU is a simple urine bag system and echoes Apollo-era contingency methods, when crews used sealed bags for solid waste and vented urine into space; Artemis II continues its ten-day flyby with NASA monitoring onboard systems.
Read the full article at jalopnik.com.
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