Toilets In Motion — Spacecraft Toilets

Before you get all excited and start mailing me pictures...

Remember, these pages document toilets that I have seen. Yes, yes, there are lots of pictures of the toilet on board the U.S. Space Shuttle, but go ask Google to find you those pictures. Enjoy them, but don't bother sending them to me. I haven't actually gone into space.

However, I have visited museums where these things can be seen.

I once saw Jim Lovell, commander of the Apollo 13 mission in 1970, give a talk at Purdue University. Here was a guy who had flown to the Moon twice, one time on a mission that just barely made it back. What a career! But he opened his talk by saying that there was something he should get out of the way first, so people wouldn't be distracted thinking about their question and not pay any attention to his very interesting stories about his space missions. Yes, the most common question he gets is, "How do you go to the bathroom in space?"

Astronaut William Pogue wrote a book on the topic.

It's not just astronauts — museums also get that question.

This is the "How do they go to the bathroom in space?" display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, USA. This is the museum on the National Mall in central Washington.

At left here, and at right below, the Human Waste Disposal Unit from the Soviet/Russian Mir (or Мир) space station.

At right above, and at left here, the Human Waste Disposal Unit from the Soviet/Russian Soyuz (or Союз) spacecraft.

The Союз toilet is configured for male use.

ВХОД = inlet

ВЫХОД = outlet

The Мир toilet is configured for female use.

Skylab was the American 1970s space station. The National Air and Space Museum has the backup Skylab, which the U.S. planned to launch but did not.

Here is the Waste Management Compartment on the backup Skylab in the National Air and Space Museum. At left are the Towel Retention Devices. The square opening into the bulkhead at right is the Wash Basin.

Beyond that, the white oval plastic device and the surrounding plumbing are labeled as the Waste Collection Facilities.

The Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport, 30 kilometers or more west of Washington, has a great collection if you can manage to get out there. Ask at the museum in the city — there is a bus from central Washington every hour or two, it takes about an hour to get to the Dulles Airport, and from there you can take a Virginia regional shuttle bus. A taxi would probably cost at least $60 each direction, and parking at the museum is $15 per car.

They have lots of aircraft in a large hanger, with one wing holding spacecraft including the Enterprise, the first shuttle. It never flew in space, but it did fly in some drop tests — it was dropped from its 747 carrier to test its glide and landing characteristics.

And, they have further "How do you use the toilet in space?" exhibits, in which it's shown that on earlier flights you didn't use a toilet, you used something like a diaper or just a plastic bag.

Below are pictures of the artifacts and transcriptions of the labels.

Continuing back in time, above is a fecal collection bag and at left is a urine transfer tube from Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in 1969.

These and the one below are back in downtown Washington at the National Air and Space Museum. The placard with these from Apollo 11 reads:

Liquid waste (urine) was collected in a Urine Collection Device, used in common by the crew of an Apollo spacecraft. Roll-on cuffs provided personal sanitary protection for the astronauts using the collection device. The urine was then transferred through the Urine Transfer Tube to a tank, from which the liquid waste was vented outside the spacecraft.

Fecal matter was sealed in a Fecal Bag with a liquid germicide and sealed again in an outer bag. This solid waste was then placed into a Sanitation Box built into the spacecraft.

Finally, the earliest space toilet in my photographic collection: a waste containment bag from John Glenn's Mercury 3 mission.

Rose George's The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters is a fascinating description of sanitation conditions around the world. "2.6 billion people don't have sanitation. [....] Four in ten people have no access to any latrine, toilet, bucket, or box. [....] Poor sanitation, bad hygiene, and unsafe water — usually unsafe because it has fecal particles in it — cause one in ten of the world's illnesses. [....] Diarrhea — nearly 90 percent of which is caused by fecally contaminated food or water — kills a child every fifteen seconds. The number of children who have died from diarrhea in the last decade [1998-2008] exceeds the total number of people killed by armed conflict since the Second World War.

In September 2009, Morna Gregory and Sian James published a book titled Toilets of the World. It's pretty much the same theme that you find here — photographs and commentary on other people's plumbing.

The Porcelain God: A Social History of the Toilet, by Julie Horan, contends that civilization began with the toilet.

Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing, edited by Laura Noren and Harvey Molotch, has essays by anthropologists, sociologists, and architects on the importance of the toilet, especially for urban dwellers.

Latrinae Et Foricae: Toilets in the Roman World describes the toilets of the Roman Empire from Iberia to Syria, and from North Africa to Hadrian's Wall in Britannia.

Toilets, Bathtubs, Sinks, and Sewers: A History of the Bathroom, explains the history of personal cleanliness and hygiene to children in grades 5-8.

If you're not bored yet, you might be interested in (or at least tolerate):

• Travel suggestions
• To Bob's main site