Let's talk about peeing in space.
Several people, in response to my NY Times essay, have said that women
couldn't go into space because we lacked the technology for them to
pee in space.
When the Mercury program was proposed, doctors were worried that
people would not be able to urinate or even swallow without the aid of
gravity.
And yet, they still made plans to send a man into space.
Up.
Hello space!
Back down.
They made no plans for peeing.
He asked Mission Control for permission to go in his suit. After
consultation with flight surgeons & suit technicians, they gave him
permission to do so.
So he wet himself & still went into space.
It worked great in testing, but when the actual astronauts used it,
the sheath kept blowing off and leaving them with pee in their suits.
Was this about extended time in the spacesuit?
They did not.
Subsequently, the astronauts called the sheaths were called
"Extra-large," "Immense," and "Unbelievable."
That worked well for Gemini and Mercury. And by well, I mean there was
still urine in the capsule and it stank of feces.
Apollo needed a different solution.
If you timed it right.
Open it too early and the vacuum of space reached through the valve to
grab your manhood.
Apparently, the venting of pee into space is very pretty. It catches
the sunlight and sparkles.
Buzz Aldrin was the second man on the moon, but the first to pee
there.
After the accident, they couldn't use the regular vent, because it
needed to be heated to keep the pee from freezing.
It wasn't meant to be a permanent ban, but the crew didn't understand
that. So they were stashing pee in every bag or container possible.
He got a UTI and then a kidney infection.
To launch and for a spacewalk, they developed the MAG
Maximum Absorbency Garment.
It's a diaper.
They also developed a zero-G toilet so that astronauts no longer had
to tape a bag to their ass.
Fun pooping in space fact: Without gravity, the poop doesn't break off
as it exits your body. You have to reach back and help with special
gloves.
Sometimes though, the toilet breaks down. At that point, they return
to using "relief bags" taped to their ass and "manual urine
containment."
Fun fact: Due to chemicals, it is bright purple and acidic.
Fun fact: Poop regularly escapes, which is why you never eat a milk
dud found floating in the ISS.
We didn't have the technology for men to pee in space when they
started either.
And some days, the best solution is still a diaper or a bag taped to
the ass
Not only is this harder to read, and not only are you losing semantic information (line breaks within a tweet are different from tweet breaks), you're literally missing content, e.g., after "They did not."
