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NASA: World’s Costliest Toilet Worth $23 M Sent To Space, Deets Inside

NASA blasted off supplies of cargo to the International Space Station on board Northrop Grumman's rocket yesterday while most of us were busy enjoying a lazy Sunday — its 14th contract resupply flight. Although the cargo consisted of a bunch of items such as food supplies, VR camera, a bunch of science experiments, it also consisted of a newly built astronaut toilet, the UWMS (Universal Waste Management System), a major improvement over the existing space toilets. All that's new is here.

Crafted for the Orion Capsules from NASA

The toilet is going to the ISS for a test run and will actually be part of the Artemis II mission of NASA Orion Capsules, which will carry astronauts to the moon for a 10-day mission.

Crafted keeping female astronauts in Mind

The new toilet has been redesigned to keep female astronauts in mind. It has a newer funnel shape and a urine collection hose and a smaller seat for 'number two'. The new funnel, which facilitates quick cleaning and disinfection, is removable.

Lighter, smaller, stronger

The toilet style is 65% smaller and 40% lighter than the original Russian toilets mounted on the ISS. It weighs 45 kilogrammes in total and is approximately 28 inches in height. It definitely looks small and cramped, but it's really supposed to be more relaxed. You will need to remember that this loo is in space where gravity is not present, so it is meant to have proper contact with the body and not let anything come out of it.

Better comfort for seating

As compared to a thigh bar seen in previous models, the current toilet seat comes with under-toe bars to help astronauts do their 'business' comfortably without really floating uncontrollably around.

Urine is still recycled into water.

Like the previous models, the newer space toilet also recycles urine into drinkable water that everyone on the space station absorbs. As of now, 90% of the water obtained in the form of urine, sweat, and other sources can be recycled by the ISS. NASA plans, however, to push this to 98 percent to make the loo capable of Mars missions of longer duration.

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