I’ve always wondered what they have for used diaper storage, maybe a diaper Genie? You would think that the International Space Station would get pretty ripe after a few days without some mighty effective containment. You can’t throw them out as you don’t want frozen used diapers orbiting the earth at 17,000 mph. Talk about your space junk!LePew said:
The MAG is only normally worn during launch, re-entry and for EVAs (Extra Vehicular Activities - space walks). The International Space Station has fully-functioning vacuum-assisted toilets and astronauts are able to keep clean with similar vacuum-assisted showers. MAGs are worn as a precaution during times when access to the toilet is not possible.Zeke said:
They also distill and purify their urine turning it back into clean drinking water. Water is very vital on the space station, outside of needing it to stay hydrated they also use it to breath. They use electrolysis to break the atoms in the water down. They keep the O2 and expel the two types of hydrogen into space. I think it would be fun to spend a few hours or even a day on the station but not months.DLmikey said:
So what do the do with the diapers from the space walks at the ISS? I’ve never heard this issue addressed, but I would imagine that they have to have some means of returning their food waste containers to earth so I would imagine they use something like a garbage bag to return that and used diapers. It really hadn’t occurred to me to question this until LePew made this post. I would also imagine that they encounter some hairy situations up there that make returning to the station with a used diaper far more likely.DLmikey said:
Yes, I’d love to spend a couple of days there, but not weeks or even months.Diaperman95 said:
They store their waste or trash and it is brought back home on the return supply rocket that brings them food and water and fuel and everything they need. Almost nothing gets injected into space. The more space trash in orbit the more they have to worry about collision with the space station. The walls are made of five thin layers of aluminum and can e damaged easily. Space trash is one of the biggest things they have to avoid. I mean a broken old decommissioned satellite in orbit is going to do far damage than a wet diaper. But imagine a soaked Mega max hitting you while traveling 22,500MPH. 🤣 I spent Christmas in the Hospital and nothing was on so I watched a show about the International Space Station. Pretty neat. The fact they recycle and distill their own urine back into drinking water got me.Zeke said:
Especially if that fast moving waste diaper is near absolute zero. It would make blue ice falling from airplanes look like a piece of facial tissue. The ISS sounds like the lunar lander with a couple of extra layers, They said that the lander had incredibly thin aluminum walls. That was one of the issues that NASA, and the Apollo 13 astronauts, had to deal with when they used the lander as a lifeboat after the oxygen tank explosion in the service module. I would imagine that the lunar lander, and to some extent the ISS are somewhat like a thin aluminum soda can that has structural integrity to stack many cases high as long as there’s sufficient internal pressure, but once the pressure is removed it looses much of that rigidity. Do you know if they placed honeycomb between the layers of the ISS to increase its structural integrity?Diaperman95 said:
Makes me wonder who will be, or has been the first DL to be orbiting at an average of 260 miles above the earth. Now you would think that the odds of 1, or more of those astronauts enjoying their MAG experience enough to want to try it on their own would be high enough that there’s 1, or more, by now who have joined the 260 mile high DL club.DLmikey said: