In space, no-one can smell you.......

[MartG]

Interesting comment

"The things you uncover about long-duration space missions when you start digging deeper.

Here's a little tidbit I discovered in preparing the SL-4 Mission Reports. The quoted astronaut shall remain anonymous for now:

"Suit Circuit: I think there should be an odor removal system in the suit circuit. I think the idea of having three men operating in the same suit circuit, suffering from each other's gas and everything else, is ridiculous. Future design of suit circuits should be modified in some way so that there is a decent way to scrub them because there's nothing worse than having a person pass gas and causing others to suffer through it. It definitely effects your ability to perform."

( the Suit Circuit is the part of the environmental control system which provides breathing oxygen to the spacesuits )

[The Wookie]

MartG said:

Interesting comment

"The things you uncover about long-duration space missions when you start digging deeper.

Here's a little tidbit I discovered in preparing the SL-4 Mission Reports. The quoted astronaut shall remain anonymous for now:

"Suit Circuit: I think there should be an odor removal system in the suit circuit. I think the idea of having three men operating in the same suit circuit, suffering from each other's gas and everything else, is ridiculous. Future design of suit circuits should be modified in some way so that there is a decent way to scrub them because there's nothing worse than having a person pass gas and causing others to suffer through it. It definitely effects your ability to perform."

( the Suit Circuit is the part of the environmental control system which provides breathing oxygen to the spacesuits )

And so explains the origin of the phrase 'as popular as a fart in a spacesuit'

[Eric Mc]

SL4 would have been the Skylab 4 flight which occurred back in 1974. On those flights, the oxygen for EVA came through an umbilical system which connected the astronaut directly to the spacecraft's oxygen supply.

Modern EVA suits have their own independent oxygen supply coming from a backpack (or Portable Life Support System - PLSS). So what an astronaut does in his suit during an EVA has no effect on the other astronauts.

[Foliage]

Wasn't their an incident with a floating poo at some point or is that a myth?

[Eric Mc]

MANY such incidents - involving both human and animal excrement - not to mention vomit, wee and other unmentionables.

[Foliage]

Eric Mc said:

MANY such incidents - involving both human and animal excrement - not to mention vomit, wee and other unmentionables.

lol

[Eric Mc]

At least on the Shuttle and the Space Station they have a reasonably functional loo. Coping with bodilly functions on Apollo and ESPECIALLY so on Gemini was no joke.

[MartG]

Yup - peeing into a tube while defacating into a plastic bag stuck to your bum can't have been easy or pleasant, though after some of the indignities the early astronauts went through during medical screening it may not have been so bad by comparison.

[Eric Mc]

Especially in a spacecraft that was no bigger than the front seats of my Ford Focus. Spending 14 days in that small a space would have driven me potty (pun intended).