The one place that we can go during
the mission where we can actually
feel like we’re alone for a moment.
So here’s a little tour
of our toilet trainer.
So this would be the floor
of the Orion capsule.
We have it set up here like this
so that we can practise in gravity.
But this would be the door.
So if you were looking at the toilet
from inside the capsule,
this would be the floor.
You would float over to it.
Open up this hinging door.
And float on in.
So here you can see the toilet,
and there’s enough room
for you to float in here.
And close the door.
This is just the toilet that we use
for training and mocking up things,
to get a perspective on how we’re
going to manage this system on orbit.
You have a urine hose.
So this is where you
collect all your urine,
and then this is just like a toilet seat.
And this is where the
solid waste is collected.
The feces get sucked down into the bottom,
into a bag, and you close that off
and you squish it down
into the bottom, into the canister.
During the mission, we’ll
have to change out that solid waste
canister a few times, and all of that
comes back to Earth with us.
As far as the urine goes,
it gets collected
and a few times a day,
we vent that urine to space.
We’re pretty fortunate as a crew
to have a toilet with a door,
on this tiny spacecraft – the one place
that we can go during the mission
where we can actually feel
like we’re alone for a moment.