I always felt like the difference
between the United States and the
Russian space programs could be summed
up by the toilet because it was
indicative of what a lot of the
differences were I'm Mike Massimino and
this is how hygiene is different in
space
[Music]
hygiene in space is very important
you're gonna have to do the same sort of
things that you do want earth like
brushing your teeth and keeping yourself
clean using the bathroom all of these
things are very important and very
different because you're doing them in
space so they do require some training
and you want to do it correctly because
if you don't it could lead to trouble on
earth we deal with flush toilets if
that's available hopefully to you you do
what you need to do and then you clean
yourself up then it's on to the
remainder of your day but in space it's
different the flights that I had in
space were on the space show and on the
space shuttle we had a lavatory it was
called the WCS the waste containment
system I think that was primarily
because if he had a problem you didn't
want to call houston we have a problem
we messed up the toilet it didn't have a
lot of privacy but it had some it had a
privacy curtain and the WCS had a hose
for urine for you to urinate into and a
commode more or less for you to poop
into and we want to use the word poop
what do you want to poops okay we're not
gonna offend then he went around a
planet here okay taking a pee on the
Space Shuttle was was pretty pretty
quick and easy the holes came with an
attachment that you would put on which
was a funnel so everyone had their own
we didn't share funnels and it was in a
little compartment and you'd open up the
compartment and there would be the seven
funnels and you would take the
appropriate one and attach it to the
urine collection hose and then you would
turn the system off what it does is it
creates a little airflow so that it'll
take the liquid down the hose and into
the tank and when that tank reached a
level that it was full we would do a
urine dump out into space it would kind
of crystallize and disappear more or
less in the vacuum of space so it was
okay to dump to dump urine out there if
the Sun was shining who was shining
through the dumped urine and beauty kind
of like a rainbow effect and that was
kind of cool and when you were finished
you would then turn off the system you
would remove your funnel you would clean
it and you would put it back in its
appropriate space then you would clean
up a little bit the quickest way to do
that was just
a wet wipe we had hand sanitizer you
could use some of that cause you don't
want to spread any germs or anything
like that you want to be very cautious
after you get a little experience you
could do other things like peeing upside
down this was a challenge given to me by
a more experienced astronaut who said it
is possible to pee upside down you
should try it and you can you just flip
yourself upside down I need to be a
little more careful you don't want to do
that on day one you know you don't want
a hot dog it too much but it is possible
to pee upside down which is kind of cool
I've done that as well people on the
space station is a little bit different
than what we had on the space shuttle
you still pee into a hose but unlike
these individual funnels it's a big
yellow funnel in one size fits all but
on the space station they recycle the
urine along with recycling sweat and
condensation all that water is collected
and then it is cleaned and it is treated
and it is reused so as my friend Don
Pettit says today's coffee is tomorrow's
coffee pooping in space was very
involved because you really don't want
to mess this up this is our orbital
outhouse right here I'll show you
but you see it's pretty small so you
have to have pretty good aim the key to
this the way it was explained to us and
I agree the key to this is alignment
next to our real shuttle toilet in the
simulator we had a practice toilet that
was not for defecating it was made for
alignment practice this is actually one
of NASA's deepest darkest secrets that
we're going over here and this camera
pointed up at you when you sat on this
you had a call circuit TV right here so
you would see on the camera whether or
not you were aligned with the target
area you would sit on there like you
went on maybe on it like you think
you're on a regular on a regular toilet
in here and then you check you're alive
like whoa-ho I'm go we're near where I
want to be on this and when you get
yourself perfectly aligned the idea was
to then try to memorize what that body
position was so on the front of this
thing there were like little platform to
put your feet underneath okay as you're
sitting on this thing but you can still
you but could still come off the back of
it and that's not good so in order to
keep you but on the toilet seat we had
these two little arms that would press
you into the seat actually to help
myself get the right position as I put
my arms up like this like I was riding a
chopper I thought of Peter Fonda in a
movie called Easy Rider
that wasn't good alignment for me after
you take care of business we had a
couple things to watch out for
we had a mirror that we would be trained
to then take from there was velcro to
the wall we would take this mirror and
then put it behind us so as we got off
the toilet we saw if anything was
following us if you get that what I mean
okay and if there was something
following you you would sit back down
and do whatever you think was necessary
to make sure whatever was following you
off the seat remained where am I
supposed to do you do a little shake if
you need to and then if things get
really out of control we have
disinfectant wipes just to make sure we
clean up here the number-one stuff can
sort of go all over the place if you
don't aim correctly the poop remained in
the toilet we landed with all of our
poop and then the toilet was serviced
once we got on the ground and on
occasion people had messed up the
procedure and therefore broken the
toilet and that's really bad if you
break the toilet and you can't poop in
the toilet on a space shuttle the backup
to that was what we called Apollo bags
that had adhesive that you would tape to
your butt that's the way they pooped in
Apollo they did not have a regular
toilet to use and that seemed extremely
unpleasant right so we did not want to
get into the Apollo bags and so that was
kind of like enough to scare you
you would make sure you did the
procedure correctly on earth cleanliness
is very important what most of us do is
we'll take a shower every day
brush your teeth very important to brush
your teeth brush your hair
we need to shave but in space it's a
little different
water is somewhat of a resource
particularly on the space station and so
we want to conserve what we have and a
big shower would use with these those
lots of water so we really can't afford
to do that so what we did in space and
what the astronaut still do in space is
you take more of a sponge bath where you
have one washcloth that you would put a
little water on and then you could put
some soap into it and then soap yourself
off this is our body wash so there's
soap inside of here we would fill this
just like a drink bag as a valve at the
top and we can squeeze the liquid soap
out of it after we added water to it and
then you would hang all of those things
up to dry the ventilation system the
circulation of air will allow it to dry
in space space is a problem so the
washcloths we use were packed very
tightly on the space station now they
have ones they look like almost like a
hockey puck with NASA autumn there the
wash clothes are kind of cool but you
want to pack them as tightly as you can
and the towels we have these big fluffy
towels you can get on earth that's that
happening in space
they're generally thinner towels but
pretty absorbent so they work really
well
the use of water is so important for our
life having clean water in a lot of
places don't have clean water source
right so we have this problem in space
where we need to have water to live for
drinking for hygiene and for preparing
food because a lot of our food items are
dehydrated so you add a little bit of
water to those and so we've done a good
job of learning how to effectively
recycle water and be able to clean urine
and water we use for different things so
that it's usable again and so that is
the type of technology that can be very
useful and in parts of the world where
getting clean water is an issue washing
our hair usually requires a lot of water
on earth but in space we use rinse less
shampoo the Heron is right there it's
got velcro on it if I wanted to put it
down I could stick it to the wall and
it's got a piece of Kapton tape on the
top so it won't leak Kapton tape is
space approved tape so what I did was
add a little bit of water to a wash
cloth and then rinse with shampoo and
then get a good lather going and then
again take a towel and and just dry off
my hair with the tile and it worked
great because you didn't have to rinse
her hair that way you generally used
your own washcloth and towel that was
somewhat of a personal item yeah shaving
the way I shave on earth I use shaving
cream and a and a razor on the sink and
that requires running water you can do
that in space and they do have a special
shaving cream you can use they call it
astro edge and you can also use a razor
but then you've got to do something with
the cream and the whiskers that are
coming off what I opted for was an
electric razor and the whiskers were
contained in the unit itself and then
you would clean it if you needed to very
carefully with a vacuum we generally get
a haircut pretty close at a time that
we're gonna fly in space on the space
station you're up there for six months
and so you need to be concerned about a
haircut and so for that to have an
electric Clipper again that's attached
directly to a vac
so that as you create hair it'll get
sucked right into the vacuum stuff like
dead skin cutting your fingernails or
toenails you want to do that stuff near
the vent so that it gets captured by the
vent and then you can clean it off
this was a toothbrush that I took with
me to space NASA could provide you with
the standard government-issue toothbrush
but if you provided one of your own they
would pack it for you and fly it and you
could use that in space if he had a
favorite toothbrush so I saw this as an
opportunity to do something fun so I
went out and purchased this astronaut
toothbrush to have in space and NASA
then converted it to a space toothbrush
by putting a piece of velcro on it in
space you brush your teeth the same way
more or less you used toothbrush and
toothpaste and then you rinse your mouth
but then the question is what do you do
with that stuff and there are two
options you can either be a spitter or a
swallower if you're a spitter I felt
that was a little more complicated
because you have to you know spin into a
washcloth and deal with it so what I do
is I just swallow the toothpaste space
sounds glamorous doesn't it
I wear contact lenses and even spacewalk
with my contact lenses some guys didn't
want to do that but I always warm I
figured you know as long as I wasn't
messing with my eyes I'd be ok there was
a concern though with the docks about us
having clean hands when we put the
contacts in and so he had wipes and I
guess you can use on earth as well if
you were concerned I did not lose a
contact in space I felt very fortunate
that the nab
to do laundry on earth is fairly
straightforward then we have machines
that help us but in space it's different
because we don't have a lot of water in
space it is hard to wash clothes on the
space shuttle we had a different shirt
everyday and we had a different pair of
underwear every day and we had pants and
shorts that would be worn for a few days
and so we didn't do laundry we just
packed that stuff up once we wore the
shirt and we put it in a kind of a
clothing bin but it was like a big bag
and then that stuff would be returned to
Earth and and cleaned and returned to us
clean on the space station they kind of
rely on the supply ships to bring them
the new clothes the dirty laundry will
get packaged put into a supply ship and
has been emptied of supplies and now
becomes a dumpster and that stuff will
burn up under the entry it does however
on occasion get stinky in space what you
smell in space in the cabin is generally
each other when we landed on the shuttle
after this situation for a few weeks the
people that would open up the hatch
would get a whiff of this and be like
was usually the reaction the more
experienced recovery technicians would
know that ahead of time and be prepared
for
you go to your spacesuit to spacewalk
that becomes your individual spacecraft
it does not come with its own toilet the
rule was on spacewalking days the two
people going out to spacewalk have first
dibs on the toilet you want it take care
of that as best you can before you go
out and then you put your diaper on to
make it astronaut proof some nice person
who packs our stuff writes front on the
diapers so we don't put it on backwards
and then we put our fancy cooling
garment on and then we start getting
dressed with the rest of the space you
know once you're locked inside of there
you have no access to the toilet any
longer so if you're gonna go you're
gonna do it in the in the diaper and
you're really discouraged from pooping
in that thing because you really don't
want that stuff getting loose in there
and the diapers should work but why take
the risk when we were launching on the
space shuttle we were going to be
putting a diaper on as well and when we
got dressed so you'd want to use the
bathroom at crew quarters and then you
put on your spacesuit with a diaper and
you go out to the launch pad now on the
launch pad itself there is a toilet
we call it the last toilet on earth
because you use it and then you go to
space the last thing you do before you
go flying or go into a simulator where
you're gonna be stuck is you go to the
bathroom it's part of the checklist we
do have a thermal control so you try to
keep yourself cool while you're
spacewalking so you don't sweat
profusely but still you're gonna be
moving around and you're gonna be
sweating a bit one thing you learn in
aviation as you go to different
altitudes things are going to expand
meaning your stomach I remember the the
who was a Navy guy that was training us
in this and he said your social graces
go out the window when you're in get
inside of the airplane you know you
might have some extra gas so he said you
don't worry about that you because you
don't want to get a stomachache and so
the same thing is in your spacesuit but
if you break wind inside of your
spacesuit you're the only guy that's
going to be smelling it and you won't
smell it
I think for the future hygiene of course
is gonna be important on the spatial it
was a short-term issue you know you
could contain all the poop for a couple
weeks on the space station now they have
a better plan because you're up there
longer periods of time but still the
proximity to the earth gives you some
advantages you can get resupplied of
clothing you can get resupplied of water
you can get resupplied of a lot of the
things you need because we're in low
Earth orbit once we start moving further
away from the planet it's going to be
harder to do that and resupply it's not
going to be as easy as it is now so I
think we are going to need a way to wash
clothes when we go further away from our
planet and we're going to need a way to
do that that doesn't require a lot of
water also we're able to contain a lot
of the the germs of bacteria we try to
go to space very healthy you have a
quarantine period ahead of time so you
don't have that we have just about every
medicine imaginable available to us
hygiene wise but eventually as we get
further and further away that may be
more of an issue as well of containing
some of the contaminants bacteria if
you're very far away from Earth you're
going to have to solve that problem on
your own so I think dealing with germs
cleanliness and resupply are gonna be a
bigger issue as we go forward where
you're gonna need to take all your
toothpaste with you or figure out a way
to make it or something so we've got to
think about these issues as you move
forward
[Music]
you