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Space
Hygiene
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| Astronaut
Charlie Precourt uses rinseless shampoo to keep clean
aboard the shuttle |
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Weightless
water is tough to handle. It clings together in shimmering,
quivering drops or sticks to surfaces like a second skin,
making a bath or shower virtually impossible in space. Shuttle
crews take sponge baths, using special shampoo and body wash
that do not require rinsing. The space station Mir was originally
equipped with a shower stall. Warm water sprayed out of the
top, and fans drew the water downward through a drain. But
cosmonauts had to remove the stall in 1995 to make way for
a "gyrodyne," which adjusts the space station's position relative
to Earth. Since then, cosmonauts have resorted to taking sponge
baths; however, these are less effective on Mir's months-long
missions than on the shuttle's much briefer forays. To compensate,
the Russian space program provides the crew with disposable
cotton underwear. In 1997, the space cargo vehicle Progress
delivered some 1,355 pounds of underwear to Mir.
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In space, things like razor stubble and toothpaste
suds don't just fall neatly into the sink.
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Astronauts
and cosmonauts go about most other hygiene-related activities-
shaving, clipping their fingernails, brushing their teeth-
as they would here on Earth, with one big difference. In weightlessness,
things like stubble and toothpaste suds don't just fall neatly
into the sink. Crew members have to capture trimmings and
clippings with a vacuum cleaner and spit into a towel. As
you might imagine, going to the bathroom can be a major production
in space. On the shuttle, all such activities take place in
a 29-inch wide compartment called the Waste Collection System
(WCS). The WCS has a separate urinal and commode. The urinal
is essentially a vacuum hose to which astronauts attach their
own personal funnels. The commode is much like an Earth-bound
toilet, except astronauts use foot- and thigh restraints to
remain seated. Fans create suction to draw wastes into the
commode. Liquid waste is emptied into space. Solid wastes
are not released, but are exposed to the frigid vacuum of
space for dehydration and deodorizing.
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| The
Space Shuttle's bathroom |
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The
system is much the same on Mir, except urine is actually recycled.
Filters purify the liquid into clean water, which is then
chemically broken down into its component parts, hydrogen
and oxygen. The hydrogen is released into space, and cosmonauts
can breathe the homemade oxygen.
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Photos:
NASA
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