Potty training: NASA tests new $23M
titanium space toilet
Associated Press,
by
Marcia Dunn
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
10/1/2020 10:06:47 PM
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—NASA’s first new space potty in decades — a $23 million titanium toilet better suited for women — is getting a not-so-dry run at the International Space Station before eventually flying to the moon.It’s packed inside a cargo ship that should have blasted off late Thursday from Wallops Island, Virginia. But the launch was halted with just two minutes remaining in the countdown.Barely 100 pounds (45 kilograms) and just 28 inches (71 centimeters) tall, it’s roughly half as big as the two Russian-built toilets at the space station. It’s more camper-size to fit into the NASA Orion capsules that will carry astronauts to the moon in
Reply 1 - Posted by:
NeverForget 10/1/2020 10:19:17 PM (No. 559108)
Did Howard Wolowitz invent this thing?
6 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
hershey 10/1/2020 10:45:06 PM (No. 559130)
I wonder how much of that went to fund black sites??? That would be find it they used them on anti-fa-la-la to find their funding sources...
0 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 10/1/2020 11:03:14 PM (No. 559147)
In the 1970's we had a Senator who made a career out of highlighting the $500 hammer of the USAF. He's rolling over in his grave right now. If that's the price of sending the fairer sex to space, perhaps they should remain closer to earth?
3 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
ladydawgfan 10/1/2020 11:08:55 PM (No. 559155)
So men may boldly go where no man has gone before??
3 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 10/1/2020 11:35:40 PM (No. 559172)
Re#3: Senator William Proxmire with his infamous "Golden Fleece Award" for wasteful gov't spending.
Sorry for the temporary neural disconnect.
1 person likes this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Safari Man 10/2/2020 12:37:18 AM (No. 559191)
Space is for robots. It’s a complete waste trying to accommodate mankind (men, women, whatever) in space when machines can be sent for a tiny fraction of the cost or risk. And machines are better at the sorts of things you might want to do in space.
0 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
DVC 10/2/2020 1:19:09 AM (No. 559217)
Better suited for the women. Always needing special stuff.
1 person likes this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
DVC 10/2/2020 2:18:34 AM (No. 559251)
#5, a bunch of Proxmire's examples were BS. I heard the entire story on the "USN $600 toilet seat" story and it was pretty legit, Lockheed paid a lot more than $600 for what was not actually a toilet seat, but the stainless steel formed top of a in-flight toilet for a maritime patrol aircraft with 14 hour missions. They couldn't get anyone to bid on the part since it was for about 6 or 8 units per year (USN budget required low rate production). Lockheed was forced to buy an expensive forming machine, make dies and then have a worker train up on the unit, make a few bad ones to get everything set, make his 6 or 8 for the year, then shut down the machine, mothball it, wrap it in a tarp and push it over into a corner for a year. Next year, repeat the process. The cost of the 'learning/recalibration' scrap units plus the actual ones, plus the machine and labor was WAY over $600, so they lost money on each one, and yet were called on the carpet for "ripping off the government". The actual toilet seat was attached to this toilet cover unit.
Proxmire was mostly a grandstanding jerk.
3 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Butch 10/2/2020 3:39:54 AM (No. 559266)
I agree with #3. The Left used to crow about the $500 hammer. They never mention that the hammer had to be made of a specific, unusual alloy, and able to pass all sorts of temperature tests, drop tests, and so on. In retrospect it was a bargain.
Oh yes, I remember Senator William Proxmire (D-Wisconsin), a Democrat who loved to crow about the Golden Fleece Award. He never mentioned that the $10,000 toilet was designed for use in the Space Shuttle, and never apologized. Can you imagine a malfunctioning toilet in a zero-gravity space capsule?!? Everyone aboard would certainly die, pronto. Yucks to you, senator.
0 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
MDConservative 10/2/2020 10:20:13 AM (No. 559541)
FTA: "...subtle design changes can make all the difference for women, noted NASA astronaut Shannon Walker..."
$23 million buys a lot of subtle changes. Maybe they can make this out of submarine hull scrap and save a few bucks.
0 people like this.
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