Space Station kicks around a new can

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s f irst new space potty in decades — a $ 23- million titanium toilet that’s better suited for women than previous models were — is getting a not- sodry run at the International Space Station before eventually f lying to the moon.

It’s packed inside a cargo ship set to blast off Thursday from Wallops Island, Va.

Barely 100 pounds and just 28 inches tall, it’s roughly half as big as the two Russian- built toilets already aboard the space station. The new device f its into the NASA Orion capsules that will carry astronauts to the moon in a few years.

Station residents will test it out for a few months. If all goes well, the toilet will be open for regular business.

Now that SpaceX is launching astronauts to the space station and Boeing is on track to send up its f irst crew in less than a year, more toilets are needed. The new one will be in its own stall alongside the old one on the U. S. side of the outpost.

The old toilets are more suited for men. To better accommodate women, NASA tilted the seat of the new toilet and made it taller. The shape should help astronauts position themselves better for No. 2, said Johnson Space Center’s Melissa McKinley, the project manager.

“Cleaning up a mess is a big deal. We don’t want any misses or escapes,” she said.

Escapes? Let’s just say everything f loats in weightlessness.

As for No. 1, the funnels also have been redesigned. Women can now urinate into the elongated and scoopedout funnels while sitting on the commode to poop, McKinley said. Until now, it’s been one or the other for female astronauts, she noted.

Like earlier space commodes, air suction, rather than water and gravity, removes the waste. Urine collected by the new toilet will be routed into NASA’s longstanding recycling system to produce water for drinking and cooking. Titanium and other tough alloys were chosen for the toilet to withstand all the acid in urine.

Going to the bathroom in space may sound simple, but “sometimes the simple things become very difficult” without gravity, said NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, commander of the second SpaceX crew, due to launch Oct. 31 from Kennedy Space Center.

Subtle changes can make all the difference for women, said NASA astronaut Shannon Walker, a former space station resident who’s also on the next SpaceX crew.

“Trust me, I’ve got going to the bathroom in space down, because that is a vital, vital thing to know how to do,” she said.