• RazzleDazzle@discuss.tchncs.de
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    7 days ago

    Mary roach did a whole segment on this in her book “packing for Mars”. I can highly recommend both the book and Mary as an author in general.

  • mkwt@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Facts about this:

    1. Bags, with contents, were left on board the lower descent stages of the lunar modules. They remain on the moon to this day.

    2. There was at least one incident on Apollo 10 where feces escaped and was floating around the cabin.

    Part of the radio transcript:

    • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Apollo 11 made the first actual moon landing, so if this transcript is from Apollo 10 the bags of shit are currently circling the sun in the lunar module, which was jettisoned on the way back to Earth. According to Google it’s in a heliocentric orbit, “drifting aimlessly around the solar system.”

      Even more details: the abbreviations CMP, LMP and CDR in the transcript mean Command Module Pilot (John Young), Lunar Module Pilot (Gene Cernan), and Commander (Tom Stafford), all now deceased. Young and Cernan each returned to walk on the moon in Apollo 16 and 17.

      • mkwt@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        I am well aware that Apollo 10 did not deliver shitbags to the moon.

        But 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 did, if they defecated at all on the moon, leave it behind per checklist. There are 96 inventoried bags on the moon, but it is not recorded which, if any, are filled with what. It would have been easier to avoid on the earlier missions, which spent less time on the surface.

        At least one astronaut claims he avoided a bowel movement for the entire mission duration.

        • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          Slashdown must have been rough with a big one in the chamber. I’d be afraid of an unplanned jettison on impact.

    • Sergio@slrpnk.net
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      8 days ago

      So… they must have trained in using the “finger cot” technique.

      “Sorry Biff, you’re a great mission candidate in all other respects, but your finger-cotting just isn’t… uh… cutting the mustard.”

      • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        The best part of this feature is that it’s clearly a result of iterative design. So engineers were trying to solve constipation, and someone with a PhD was like “Well, you know what works for me…”

        • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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          7 days ago

          and someone with a PhD was like “Well, you know what works for me…”

          I do workplace safety and hazardous materials, so occasionally I get to start a talk with “This room has more doctorates than nostrils, so it should be easy”. And then I have to explain things like “Dangerous liquid goes into the dangerous liquid sink” or “No, you can’t remove the mask to scratch your nose, even if it’s really really itchy”.

          • philpo@feddit.org
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            7 days ago

            Oh god yes, so much.

            I do disaster response planning, mostly for healthcare. “No, your OR really needs electrical power!” “No, you can’t still run your outpatient clinic during an active shooter situation!” “For fucks sake,NO,you will not use a diesel generator indoors to power the ED!Not even with a open window. Your windows are 30cm x 1m”

        • SacralPlexus@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          It’s a covering for a finger, kind of like cutting the finger out of a latex/nitrile glove. It looks just like a tiny condom made to fit on a finger.

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Actually, it’s in there because shit doesn’t fall off your ass in 0G. It kinda curls out towards the back if left to dodo its own thing.

    • Zron@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Maybe the impact from landing will just force it out of you like that 1800s invention of putting pregnant women in centrifuges to doing the baby out.

  • GluWu@lemm.ee
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    8 days ago

    The finger cot is there because space is super fucking boring

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      “Neil, it’s been eighteen years since you got back from the moon, you really need to stop using the bag and finger cot. We don’t even make these anymore except special order for you.”

  • 74 183.84@lemm.ee
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    7 days ago

    NASA really expects you to go man to man with a bag? Im willing to try it but I cant say that I am excited to