Nasa developing spacesuit with built-in toilet

Washington: NASA scientists are developing a new spacesuit that includes a waste-disposal system, which will allow astronauts to remain in their spacesuits for up to six days in case of emergencies.

The new suits, called the Orion Crew Survival Systems Suits (OCSSS), will be worn by astronauts on NASA’s Orion spacecraft, which will carry humans beyond low Earth orbit.

While the Orion will be equipped with a toilet, NASA is making contingency plans in case of emergencies, including the possibility that the Orion capsule depressurises and the astronauts have to remain in their suits to survive. NASA wants astronauts to be able to survive in their suits for up to six days.

It is a long time to be in such a small space under the best of conditions, “but then to live in a suit with all of your waste right by you for that long of a time, it could get gnarly pretty quickly,” said NASA engineer Kirstyn Johnson, told Space.com.

Existing suits have diapers called maximum absorbency garments (MAG’s). Astronauts do not remain in their suits for more than 10 hours at a time. Once out of the spacesuit, astronauts use the onboard toilets. There were no toilets on the spacecraft that carried humans to the Moon.

For urine collection, the all-male crew members wore catheters that fit over the penis like a condom, with a tube at the end to collect the liquid, which was pulled into a bag attached to the outside of the suit. However, there were no suits, urine-collection systems for women. Female astronauts used diapers and toilets.