NASA Spacesuit With Built-In Toilet to Be Used on Orion Mission

NASA is working on a new spacesuit with a built-in toilet that can be worn for up to six days in case of depressurization or extended spacewalks. 

The suits will be similar to those used during the Apollo era when astronauts went to the moon, Space.com reported. The suit, called the Orion Crew Survival Systems Suit (OCSSS), will be used on the next-generation ship Orion, which will carry astronauts beyond low Earth orbit.

According to Space.com, if the suits are successful, they may be able to be used on an eventual trip to Mars, which at current space travel speeds would take nine months, though a faster way of travel may be developed before any Mars missions are undertaken.  

Orion will have a toilet, but NASA wants to cover contingencies that would require astronauts to stay in their suits for long periods. Currently, astronauts wear adult diaper-type garments called MAGs (maximum absorbency garments) for up to 10 hours while wearing their suits, Space.com reported. 

The current NASA design uses a fecal bag and condom catheter and is only suited for men, with NASA working on another design that will work for female astronauts. Apollo-era astronauts were all male.

NASA engineer Kirstyn Johnson told Space.com the planned system could see astronauts wearing their suits for “a really long time. To live in a suit with all of your waste right by you for that long of a time, it could get gnarly pretty quickly.” 

While the MAGs currently worn are fairly effective, they have been known to leak and will not hold days worth of waste matter, the Daily Mail reported. Apollo-era astronauts had no toilet on board and had to dispose of their own waste when they took of their suits, the Daily Mail reported.  

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