NASA to Send $ 23 Million Space Toilet to ISS
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will launch a new space toilet at the International Space Station next week for testing, which will be used on future missions to the Moon or Mars.
The $ 23 million Universal Waste Management System (UWMS) takes up 65% less space and 40% lighter than the toilet currently in use on the ISS, and can also handle much larger crews. It will be delivered to the space station aboard the Northrop Grumman Cygnus freighter on September 29 as part of a scheduled launch to deliver cargo for the crew.
The ISS crew will check the operation of the waste management system in microgravity. The system will be installed next to the current toilet in the space station’s Tranquility module (Node 3), said Melissa McKinley, project manager for NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems Logistics Reduction.
The new system will be used by the space station’s crew and tested over the next three years to ensure its reliability. Prior to this, the system was tested in environments that simulate space station conditions, according to NASA officials.
