Think about the possibility of going to space. Just the absolute beauty of it. But, of course, it comes with some drawbacks. We all remember the times that things didn't go so well. The tragic Challenger explosion comes to mind, right?
But, as it turns out, even the little things that go wrong can be quite... crappy. As reported by the New York Post, the toilet on the Artemis II mission isn't working as expected. Christina Koch, the only woman on the mission, reported the issue to Mission Control only hours after the rocket took off.
Gary Jordan, a spokesperson for NASA, explained what happened. "The toilet fan is reported to be jammed. Now the ground teams are coming up with instructions on how to get into the fan and clear that area to revive the toilet for the mission."
But, fortunately for the Artemis II crew, the "fecal collection" of the toilet "can still be used with the waste management system aboard Orion".
You'd expect the toilet on the Artemis II to be super high-tech, for something that's spaceworthy, right? Well, NASA's director of flight operations, Norm Knight, explained that there was in fact an issue with a controller in the toilet. I bet you don't have one of those in your toilet!
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Artemis II's Toilet Should Be Fixed By Now
The Artemis crew had to deploy their contingency "waste management capabilities specifically for urine." I don't even want to begin to imagine what that means.
Flight controllers managed to walk Koch through the steps to get the toilet up and running again. After she tried the fix, she reported "Houston. Integrity, good checkout."
Mission Control's Capcom Amy Dill radioed back to Koch with some good news. "Happy to report that toilet is go for use. We do recommned letting the system get to operating speed before donating fluid, and then letting it run a little bit after donation."
The toilet itself is a pretty good innovation in spacefaring tech. Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen said "[it's] the one place we can go during the mission where we can actually feel like we're alone for a moment."
We're really happy the Artemis' toilet is working now!
