Wednesday, May 28, 2008

"Houston, we need a plunger..."

What do you do when you're stranded... and your only toilet fails?

If you're circling Earth in low Earth orbit every ninety minutes, you can't call a plumber.

Or can you?

You definitely ask ground controllers to send old-fashioned waste bags on the next available flight. Chances are that shipment is on its way, an ignominious, if very practical use, of the Space Shuttle, cleared for launch in less than a week; its final missions now trickling down to the single digits.

It will not be any small matter to the crew of the International Space Station however. NASA hasn't discussed contengency plans, but surely someone has discussed mitigation - especially because the station was designed to be equipped for a single toilet at this phase in its construction.

The Associated Press reports the news, bound to eclipse the Phoenix Mars polar lander in the "head" lines over the next few days.

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