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Rocket Makers Ask For Daily Urine

by flight737 | July 16, 2008 at 04:31 pm | 80 views | add comment

For spaceship builders the subtance you will regard as wast will go a very long way in helping to secure their ship's success.

a space capsule constructor in the US is asking for 30 litres a day of urine to help test out its next spaceship.

Space program contractor Hamilton Sundstrand is seeking urine from workers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

And the need is voluminous: 30 litres a day, which translates into nearly 8 gallons - or around 30 people's contribution a day.

The urine will go towards test for the new Orion space capsule that will park in space for six months while astronauts work on the moon.

esigners of the Orion have to solve a pressing issue of getting rid of stored urine, said NASA's head of life support systems John Lewis.

He said: "Urine is a mess because urine is full of solids."

It is these solids which clog the dumping system for urine in space, so designing full-proof toilets is one of NASA's top priorities.

Lewis added: "You can't make fake urine."

The Connecticut-based company building the Orion toilet needs the large volume of urine to work on urine acidity problems, said spokesman Leo Makowski.

The memo seeking daily contributions from July 21 to July 31 was not meant to go public, he said.