SHOOTING STAR OR POOP ROCKET? THIS IS HOW YOU GO TO THE BATHROOM IN SPACE

Space is a realm famously without gravity, which may lead the average person to wonder how they take care of nature’s call. To put it bluntly, I will be discussing how astronauts and people on the International Space Station (ISS) go to the bathroom, both number one and number two.

Astronauts famously wear “Maximum Absorbency Garments” or space diapers. Both male and female astronauts wear these when they are on missions and in a position where there either aren’t any physical bathrooms or in case of a cosmic “accident.”

Astronauts do not wear these garments all the time however. Notably, on the ISS, there is a bathroom. It’s original design wasn’t very female friendly considering you were expected to pee standing up, but going number two meant having to strap yourself in so you don’t float away mid-poop.

Now, not to get vulgar, but users are expected to keep this toilet tight to their bottoms while dropping space raisins, so there most likely aren’t a lot of cases of floating feces.

There’s a new toilet on the ISS now and it has vacuum suction and is accessible to both males and females. Fun fact, a lot of the waste is either recycled into water (urination) or sent back to Earth to be studied. Though, the ISS has to get rid of waste somehow, so they load it onto a ship and send it back home so it burns up in the atmosphere. Maybe you should rethink that shooting star you saw and wished upon because it could have been a flaming poop ship.

Many people may worry that having to wear a diaper during your job could be humiliating or dehumanizing, but astronauts have spent years of training and becoming accustomed to this kind of “disruption.”

Plus, NASA astronaut Bob Behnken has gone on record and said space is “the best view for the bathroom anywhere” according to Space.com, so it isn’t all bad.

Personally, if there were anywhere in the universe I could poop, the peaceful and quiet embrace of space overlooking my home planet may be one of my first choices.

Information sourced from TheConversation.com, Space.com, Smithsonian Magazine, and public knowledge.