Artemis II spacecraft toilet malfunctions, forcing four astronauts to wear "diapers" to return to Earth.

Phoenix.com Technology News, April 7, according to the UK’s Daily Mail, NASA’s Artemis II (Artemis II) lunar-orbit mission encountered an equipment malfunction during its return flight. The spacecraft’s toilet has once again broken down, leaving four astronauts with a difficult waste-management problem for the remainder of the journey. The mission has currently entered its 6th day of a 10-day schedule.

Including four crew members, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, at this stage they have no choice but to switch to a CCU (collapsible emergency urine-collection) system similar to diapers. This plastic-bag-like device was developed specifically for this mission. It uses the capillary action of internal hydrophilic blades to drain urine to the bottom, and it connects to the spacecraft’s system to discharge the waste into outer space.

In an official NASA response, it said that at present astronauts can still use the malfunctioning toilet to handle solid waste, but the issue with wastewater treatment is still under investigation and assessment. If the system completely shuts down, the crew will have to revert to using sealed waste-collection bags similar to those from the Apollo-era missions, and store them inside the spacecraft for the return to Earth.

Toilet model on the lunar-orbit spacecraft

Since launch on April 1, this upgraded toilet based on the International Space Station version has repeatedly experienced anomalies. Previously, there were controller and fan failures affecting urine collection, and also instances of the urine discharge pipeline freezing—later even forcing NASA to adjust the spacecraft’s attitude to use solar radiation to melt the ice. The lunar-orbit spacecraft is expected to splash down on April 10 in the Pacific Ocean waters off the coast of Southern California. It is still unclear whether this toilet malfunction can be fully repaired before splashdown.

(Editor: Wang Zhiqiang HF013)

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