Vlog 24: Stowage and trash – a space struggle

Uploaded on January 14, 2026

463 views

Vlog 24: Stowage and trash – a space struggle

In this vlog, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen gives an inside look at how the Artemis II crew will manage stowage and waste during their mission. It's important when four people are living in a capsule the size of a camper van – for nearly 10 days!  (Credits: Canadian Space Agency, NASA, Fulwell 73 UK Limited)

We’ll have stowage bags, and we have trash bags, and we will slowly collect trash over the mission and bring back with us.

Let's talk a little bit about stowage, because for four people for nine days and all the activities we have planned, we're going to have a lot of stuff. Most of the floor of this vehicle is used for stowage. So, some of it has avionics in it, computer boxes, etc., but other parts of it are just empty compartments that we can store things in.

You can see these panels. There’s even panels under these seats, and we can access all of these once we're in space. And that's what we'll get our stuff out of. 

And so then inside there we'll have stowage bags that will all be labelled and organized, and we'll know where to go to get whatever it is we need for any specific task. 

So another thing that's important for habitability, of course, is food and water. And when you eat food in space, it's all pre-prepared: you rehydrate it, or you just open it up ready to eat. You end up with a lot of packaging.

And so, you've really got to be careful with that and then manage that trash carefully and stow it away, and we have trash bags, and we will slowly collect trash over the mission and bring back with us.

The only thing we jettison during our mission is the urine. Because on our vehicle, unlike the International Space Station, we don't have a method to recycle the urine. Everything else comes back with us. All the solid waste,  all the feces, we’ll be bringing back to Earth with us. 

For the ownership and usage of the videos, please see the Terms section.