Floating poop is one of the biggest mysteries in NASA history
Apollo 10 was one of NASA's most important missions: it was launched into space in May 1969, two months before the first moon landing. Its function was to understand all necessary approach, landing and return movements, but it also eventually called attention to something much more unusual: poop behavior in zero gravity.
Yes, that's exactly what you read! On the sixth day of the mission, Commander Tom Stafford noticed something floating in the air and said laughing, “Who did this? Somebody give me a quick napkin! There's a mer ** floating in the air. ” Of course no one took the authorship of the filth, turning history into one of NASA's greatest mysteries.
Command module pilot John Young soon defended himself: “I didn't do that! Not one of mine. ” Lunar module pilot Eugene Cernan hesitated, "I don't think it's one of mine." Finally, Commander Stafford was even more emphatic: "Mine is a little stickier than that." Ew!
Plastic bag attached to the buttocks
Today, the International Space Station has vacuum-powered toilets that prevent accidents like the one described above from happening. But in the early days of space exploration this was really a challenge; after all, everyone needs to go to the bathroom sometime ...
The lack of gravity still accelerates the transit of food within the digestive tract. Urine itself is a problem: In 1961, the first American to go to space, Alan Shepard, had to pee inside his astronaut uniform on a flight that lasted only 5 hours! NASA was not expecting this need.
In Apollo missions, astronauts used a plastic bag attached to their buttocks so they could evacuate. Still, this was complicated, and often crew members had to complete the service with their fingers, after all, the lack of gravity left the poop stuck to the butt. them over there. However, most of the time it was necessary to live with them on the ship.
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