SpaceX is modifying the toilet on the Crew Dragon capsule that is scheduled to take four astronauts into space on October 31. The reason for the fix is due to the fact that urine leaks were detected in the Inspiration4 mission last September, which ended up in the ventilation system .
The Inspiration4 mission lasted three days. On board were billionaire Jared Isaacman and three other people. Inspections carried out after landing revealed that a tube connected to the toilet storage tank had come loose during the flight , causing the urine to flow into the ventilation system and not into the storage tank.
This problem has also been observed on the Crew-2 mission , which arrived at the space station in April and will conclude next week. The astronauts on board have been able to verify this by checking the Endeavor, the Crew Dragon used for Crew-2.
It seems that the leaks are not a big problem and it is that neither of the two affected crews has reported any complications in the flight. Furthermore, analyzes suggest that Endeavor has suffered no corrosion damage that could make it difficult to return to Earth. Still, urine leaks should be avoided and that’s why SpaceX is taking. “For Crew-3, we have solved this problem in the tank essentially by making a fully welded structure with no joints that can come off and disengage,” Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX Aerospace Engineer and Vice President of Mission Assurance, told Space.com.
SpaceX has a multi-million dollar contract with NASA to transport astronauts to the space station with Crew Dragon and the company’s Falcon 9 rocket. As the name suggests, Crew-3 will be the third operational mission that SpaceX conducts under that agreement. The company also launched a manned test flight to the orbiting laboratory, called Demo-2, in the summer of 2020 that lasted two months.
