Toilet problems aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule will leave a group of four astronauts with no option to go to the bathroom during their multi-hour journey from the International Space Station to Earth in the coming weeks.
A fluid problem
Instead, the aircraft crew will have to rely on “special underwear” during the journey if they want to relieve themselves. A few days ago SpaceX, the aerospace company owned by billionaire Elon Musk , first discovered a problem with the toilet of his spaceship while inspecting and testing a Crew Dragon capsule other than the one that will be used on the flight. The company realized that a tube used to funnel urine into a storage tank had become detached and was causing a major mess with several leaks taking place under the floor of the capsule. However, this problem is nothing new, as the company has reported the same failure in up to three spacecraft the company operates with.
At the moment, NASA has not specified how long the four astronauts, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur of NASA, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency, and Akihiko Hoshide of Japan, will have to be aboard their Crew Dragon capsule. with an inoperable toilet. So far, only two Crew Dragon spacecraft have returned from the ISS with people on board, with the first of those trips lasting more than 19 hours, while the second only lasted for six.
How long the journey lasts will depend on several factors, including how orbital dynamics and weather affect the return trip, but SpaceX has assured that they are working to try to minimize that time, from undocking to landing, the maximum possible.
Jared Isaacman, the commander and patron of the Inspiration4 mission, as it was called in its day, has assured that a warning was launched during the mission, alerting the crew to a problem with the toilet fan . He said he and his fellow travelers had to work with SpaceX controllers from the ground to fix those kinds of problems.
However, the incident did not cause any serious problems for the Inspiration4 team, nor were there any cases of bodily fluids being released inside the capsule, which was the most concern. However, after the Inspiration4 crew returned to Earth, SpaceX completely disassembled the spacecraft to further inspect what had gone wrong.
SpaceX is inspecting all of its aircraft
Elon Musk’s aerospace company has detailed that in each of its aircraft there is a storage tank where the urine is going to stop, and a tube from that tank was the one that detached, spilling all the fluid.
