Nasa's Latest Mission: to Boldly Go
Agency's researchers begin urine collection drive as part of spacecraft toilet testing
For the benefit of all, proclaims the motto of Nasa. Now the US government space agency is calling upon its employees - and indeed anybody passing by who has the urge - to give their all in one of its trickiest missions: to boldly go into a beaker.
Researchers on the agency's Orion program have put out a call for volunteers to donate urine as it tests toilet designs for the latest generation of space capsules.
Urine poses a unique problem for space travelers: it contains solids that can clog the plumbing of even the most sophisticated of spacecraft.
The urine collection drive will last for 11 days. The aim is to collect 30 liters a day, although anyone hoping to give a personal boost to the agency's mission should be aware that a personal limit of 350 milliliters has been imposed. "While this is not a regulation," the memo reads, "you are not encouraged to over-hydrate as this could dilute the urine we collect."
Researchers on the agency's Orion program have put out a call for volunteers to donate urine as it tests toilet designs for the latest generation of space capsules.
Urine poses a unique problem for space travelers: it contains solids that can clog the plumbing of even the most sophisticated of spacecraft.
The urine collection drive will last for 11 days. The aim is to collect 30 liters a day, although anyone hoping to give a personal boost to the agency's mission should be aware that a personal limit of 350 milliliters has been imposed. "While this is not a regulation," the memo reads, "you are not encouraged to over-hydrate as this could dilute the urine we collect."
Use the feedback form below to submit your comments.
Use the form below to email this article to your friends.
- Nasa Launches Volunteer Urine Collection Drive
- Glast Telescope Will Observe the Most Violent Events in the Universe
- International Space Station: Nasa Prepares to Install Japanese Lab
- Mars Mission: Phoenix Leaves 'footprint' in Red Planet's Soil
- Mars Mission: Robot Scoops Up Red Planet's Soil
- Space Probe Uncovers Signs of Ice on Mars
- Triumphant Return to the Red Planet - Now Nasa Will Probe What Lies Beneath
- Closer Encounter: Nasa Plans Landing on 40m-wide Asteroid Travelling at 28,000mph
- Climate Target is Not Radical Enough - Study
- Climate Target is Guaranteed Catastrophe
- Nasa Tries to Figure Out Real-life Rain Man's Brain
- Flawless Launch for Europe's Automated Space Freighter
- Nasa Astronaut Workout Offered to Earthlings
- Two Dead in Nasa Hostage Drama
- Out of This World: Nasa Funds Revolutionary Ideas
- The Challenger Space Tragedy
- NASA to Beam Beatles Song ‘Across the Universe’
- Former Astronaut Goes Insane for Love
- Space - world beyond the world
- Scramjet Engine : X-43A