Crisis in space as Artemis II toilet breaks leaving astronauts with no other options

The toilet on board the Artemis II spacecraft has reportedly broken down again, leaving the four astronauts on board with no working bathroom on their return to Earth.

According to a source speaking with the Daily Mail on Monday, the toilet on board the Orion capsule has stopped working – a problem that has plagued the space flight since Artemis II launched on April 1.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will reportedly now have to switch to a diaper-like alternative for the remainder of the trip back to Earth.

The space agency later confirmed that the toilet was not working as the Artemis flight reached day six in their ten-day mission.

NASA has previously said that in the event the space capsule’s toilet stopped working, the astronauts would need to switch to a device called the Collapsible Contingency Urinal (CCU).

The CCU is a backup system for urine collection developed specifically for the Artemis moon missions.

Simply put, it is a plastic bag with special inner surfaces called hydrophilic vanes that act like tiny channels. These channels use capillary action, the same natural force that makes a paper towel soak up a spill, which pulls the urine away from the astronaut and down to the bottom of the bag.

At the bottom of the bag is a small drain port. The crew can connect it to the spacecraft’s systems and safely release the urine into space.

A mockup of the Artemis II toilet on board the Orion space capsule named Integrity

It is not known at this time if the Orion space capsule, which has been named Integrity, was still capable of handling solid waste.

During the launch of Artemis II, the crew had multiple minor toilet issues, including a controller and fan problem that affected its ability to collect urine.

Later, there was a frozen urine vent line that made it hard to jettison wastewater into space.

In both cases, NASA confirmed that the astronauts were still able to use the malfunctioning toilet for bowel movements.

If the Artemis toilet has completely broken down and can no longer handle solid waste collection, the four astronauts would have to fall back to older-style fecal collection bags.

These are basically sealed plastic bags with adhesives and wipes. These were used on the Apollo moon missions.

The bags would be sealed, stored inside the spacecraft, and returned to Earth with the crew.

The malfunctioning toilet is an upgraded version of an experimental model that was launched to the International Space Station in 2020.

Artemis II’s Orion space capsule approached the moon on Monday, April 6 for its lunar flyby

Compared to the toilet on the ISS, Orion’s lavatory was modified to be more practical for female astronauts. NASA also found enough space in the Orion spacecraft to fit the toilet in its own tiny room.

Prior to launch, Hansen described the capsule’s bathroom as ‘the one place we can go during the mission where we can actually feel like we’re alone for a moment.’ 

However, the Artemis crew reported a ‘blinking amber fault light’ right after lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

After several hours of troubleshooting the issue on day one of the mission, it was determined that the new toilet simply needed time to ‘warm up’ and was cleared for use.

The toilet broke down a second time when the urine vent became blocked with ice, forcing NASA’s headquarters to reposition the spacecraft so that the vent was facing the sun and melted the blockage.

It is unknown if the problem with the capsule’s toilet wil be able to repaired for the third time.

Artemis II is due to have a ‘free day’ on day seven of the mission on Tuesday. The capsule is scheduled to return to Earth on Friday, April 10 when the spacecraft will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the Southern California coast.