How to Pee in Space

[Homer J Simpson]

Interesting read.

On space.com so heavily laden with ads but article still good.

http://www.space.com/34681-how-to-pee-in-space.html

[Falcon69]

Okay, I admit, I haven't read the article yet, but just thinking about this makes me laugh. You can't just simply piss with the wind. If you do piss in space, would it be like cracking open a can of soda? Would it propel you some distance while doing it? Could you write your name and have your name just be suspended there in time forever? 

[Brumby]

I can just see it now....

Rewrite a scene from Star Trek: First Contact.


"WAIT!  Before you leave, we want to
know - Who pissed on our windscreen?!"

[Rerouter]

If you pee fast, the surface tension will be too interrupted to build up, and you would end up moving away from where your aiming (likely also sending you spining down towards your stream as its not aimed from center of mass)

If you pee slowly, it would be like astronauts showering, the fluid would stick to you via surface tension and climb back up you to equalize, no mass being flung away, so you would be stuck in place

[timb]

Good thing R. Kelly isn't an astronaut...

[Vgkid]

Good thing R. Kelly isn't an astronaut...

http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:arc:video:comedycentral.com:98ee553a-ed00-11e0-aca6-0026b9414f30
Lets see if this will embed, nope.
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/gslu5d/chappelle-s-show-r--kelly-s--piss-on-you--video

[steverino]

Good thing R. Kelly isn't an astronaut...

R. Kelly?  God, I'm old.

[timb]

Good thing R. Kelly isn't an astronaut...

R. Kelly?  God, I'm old.

He's a singer--popular in the 90's/Early-2000's--that became infamous for taking Golden Showers with 16 year old girls...

[firewalker]

For the first time I know there is no gravity in ISS... I thought it was a spinning mass that creates its own gravity by centrifugal force.

This kind of artificial gravity is impractical for small sized vessels. It creates more problems than it solves.

Alexander.

[Len]

For those of you who enjoyed How to Pee in Space:

[timb]

For those of you who enjoyed How to Pee in Space:

That's actually *really* interesting and something I hadn't thought about...

It's also kind of gross!

Male Astronaut: "What the hell are these red blobs floating around? Did someone tear a juice pack again?"

Female Asteonaut: "Oh, sorry... I'm having a heavy flow day..."

Male Astronaut: *Gags*

[TerraHertz]

For the first time I know there is no gravity in ISS... I thought it was a spinning mass that creates its own gravity by centrifugal force.

But, but... you've seen pics of it, right? Not spinable.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap161105.html
youtube   /watch?v=DhmdyQdu96M


ISS Fisheye Fly-Through
Image Credit: NASA, ISS, Harmonic

 Explanation: Shot in Ultra HD, this stunning video can take you on a tour of the International Space Station. A fisheye lens with sharp focus and extreme depth of field provides an immersive visual experience of life in the orbital outpost. In the 18 minute fly-through, your point of view will float serenely while you watch our fair planet go by 400 kilometers below the seven-windowed Cupola, and explore the interior of the station's habitable nodes and modules from an astronaut's perspective. The modular International Space Station is Earth's largest artificial satellite, about the size of a football field in overall length and width. Its total pressurized volume is approximately equal to that of a Boeing 747 aircraft.

[Rick Law]

If you pee fast, the surface tension will be too interrupted to build up, and you would end up moving away from where your aiming (likely also sending you spining down towards your stream as its not aimed from center of mass)

If you pee slowly, it would be like astronauts showering, the fluid would stick to you via surface tension and climb back up you to equalize, no mass being flung away, so you would be stuck in place

Not having any inside knowledge of our space program, I think about it from the Physics of things.  I must conclude:  You can't pee in space, period.

The moment you open your zippers, you are exposed to the elements of open-space and a very short moment later is the end of you.  So, no pissing from you.

So, you must be pissing in some environment sheltered from open space, and then discharge it some how.

If you are in an enclosed capsule, there are many ways to make sure that it doesn't make a mess.  Something as simple as a fan between your legs to blow the liquid in a particular direction could work.  Good aim into a container will also work.  (According to some science shows, air flow to guide it is exactly how it is done.  They use a funnel with air suction to suck the liquid into a container.  But I don't recall what show to cite as reference).

Now, back to open space - if you are squirting some liquid out of a nozzle, Newton's Third Law applies.  Pee/liquid goes one way, you go the other way.  The pee turns into ice particle and becomes whatever dust particle becomes around them.

[Rerouter]

You could actually pee into vacuum, however it would not be pleasant by any means, for males your skin can withstand slightly more than 1 atmosphere of pressure differential down there, however it would result in an almost instant forced erection which would be almost black out painful,

Now you would not freeze, space is an insulator, however all fluids on the surface of the skin and held in your pours would flash boil due to vapour pressure, and your blood pressure would continue swelling in the skin surrounding,

Now as men have more length to drop the pressure across they stand a better chance of resisting forced urination, however when you finally let go, it would pull your bladder to hard vacuum and likely lead to both bladder and kidney bleeding.


From a few home hobbiests pulling there arms down to fractional vacuums, its painful, however they retain muscle movement it is however limited, and leads to both swelling, and depending on the rate of change the feeling of standing up too fast.


As for the actual ISS toilet, it uses a vacuum pump to draw air and the fluid down the hose,

[timb]

You could actually pee into vacuum...

I wouldn't recommend it, unless you want to buy a new vacuum! *Rimshot*

[TerraHertz]

We can probably all agree to be glad there isn't video.