The Artemis II astronauts ran into some toilet trouble on day one of their historic moon mission.
The crew reported a blinking fault light shortly before the 330-foot Orion spacecraft went into a higher orbit of Earth overnight Thursday, above where satellites and the International Space Station reside.
The toilet fan, which removes odor and airborne particles, was jammed, NASA spokesperson Gary Jordan announced on the livestream of the mission, Space.com reported.
The $23 million toilet, also known as the Universal Waste Management System, is the first designed for a deep space mission.
The toilet malfunction happened hours after Artemis II Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft lifted off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center Wednesday with four astronauts on board, part of NASA’s efforts to return humans to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
With the fan issue, the astronauts could still use the commode to poop - but not urinate. "In the meantime they're getting their contingency - their backup waste management capabilities specifically for urine," Jordan said.
After mission control teams on the ground assessed the data, they were able to fix the problem.
“The Artemis II crew, working closely with mission control in Houston, were able to restore the Orion spacecraft’s toilet to normal operations following the proximity operations demonstration,” NASA said in a statement.
Artemis II is the first flight since 1972’s Apollo 17, the last mission of the pioneering Apollo space program. The successful launch followed weeks of delays due to fuel leaks that caused a previous liftoff attempt to be cancelled last minute.
NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen are on a 10-day mission before they will return to Earth. For now, the Artemis team will continue to test their spacecraft’s capabilities and systems, heading to the moon on day five or six of their flight.
This mission will prepare astronauts for a future trip to the lunar surface in 2028 - a key step to establishing a permanent lunar base in the future.
Toilets are much improved over previous systems for astronauts to use in space. Past missions to the moon were messy and smelly. During the 1969 Apollo 10 mission, there was even an incident with a floating turd.
"Give me a napkin, quick," NASA commander Tom Stafford said. "There's a turd floating through the air."
The first apparatus even resembling a toilet wasn’t sent to space until the 1973 Skylab space station launch. Many improvements have been made in the decades since then.
Artemis II’s Universal Waste Management System uses airflow to pull urine and feces away from the body in the zero-gravity space environment. There are also foot restraints and handholds for astronauts to keep themselves from floating away.
“A new feature of the UWMS is the automatic start of air flow when the toilet lid is lifted, which also helps with odor control,” NASA stated.
Toilet paper, wipes and gloves the astronauts wear are disposed of in water-tight bags and solid waste in individual water-tight bags is put into a removable fecal storage canister.
If the Artemis toilet has further problems, the astronauts would need to collect their urine in bags, according toThe New York Times.
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