La nave Artemis II experimenta una avería en el inodoro, y cuatro astronautas se ven obligados a regresar a la Tierra usando pañales.

Phoenix Network Technology reported on April 7 that, according to the UK Daily Mail, during the return leg of NASA’s Artemis II (Artemis II) lunar flyby mission, the spacecraft encountered a device malfunction; the onboard toilet has again shut down, leaving four astronauts facing a disposal challenge for the remainder of the journey. The mission is currently on the 6th day of its 10-day flight plan.

The four crew members, including Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, are currently forced to switch to an emergency urine collection system similar to a disposable diaper—namely the collapsible urine collection unit (CCU). 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 connects to the spacecraft system to discharge into space.

NASA’s official response states that astronauts can still use the malfunctioning toilet to handle solid waste, but the wastewater treatment issue is still under investigation and assessment. If the system fully shuts down, the crew will have to revert to using sealed waste collection bags similar to those used during the Apollo missions and store them inside the module to bring back to Earth.

Toilet model on the lunar flyby spacecraft

Since the launch on April 1, this toilet system upgraded based on the International Space Station version has repeatedly experienced anomalies. Previously, there were controller and fan failures that affected urine collection, as well as freezing in the urine discharge pipeline; the latter even forced NASA to adjust the spacecraft’s attitude to use solar radiation to melt the ice. The lunar flyby spacecraft is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California on April 10; it is still unclear whether this toilet malfunction can be thoroughly fixed before the splashdown.

(Responsible editor: Wang Zhiqiang HF013)

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