>>19903
>>19990
I'm gonna guess that's the ISS and they're stocking up. It bears some resemblence to the shuttle's middeck, but doesn't look quite like it as far as I can tell, and the shuttle would probably never need that many diapers in one mission.
Though, I did hear once the space shuttle toilet failed and they had to resort to using socks (socks in bags?) as toilets. I wonder if after that they started taking a lot more diapers as a better emergency back-up than socks... They wouldn't be any better than poop bags for #2, but they would be way, way better than socks for urine.
Anyways, this thread is a good occasion for me to splerge on diapers in space. Or at least for NASA. I don't think anyone knows the story of how the USSR handled it. But anyways, for NASA diapers...
So it started with the May 5th launch of the first American in space in 1961. Freedom 7 of the Mercury program. See, it was only a 15-minute flight, and the plan was for Shepherd to get in the tiny capsule and launch and be recovered well within the time someone can hold their urine. However, the ground crew was extremely careful/nervous about the first launch of an American into space, and kept delaying it for clouds, minor hiccups, etc, for 4 hours.
Now, see attached image 1 - that's a Shuttle-era spacesuit, but the launch sitting position is the same. It's great for enduring g-forces, but blood from the legs pools down to the torso, basically forcing the kidneys into overdrive. Plus launch-day nerves, and another hour or three since he'd last been able to use the bathroom, it was simply beyond what man can endure.
(Stepping forward to the early shuttle era for a moment, apparently a lot of astronauts tried to beat it by dehydrating themselves - even getting in a hot tub the night before to aid the dehydration and not drinking anything until after launch - but nothing worked, they still ended up peeing. Sitting on your back for 2+ hours is just apparently that compelling to your kidneys. And obviously, NASA was not happy with astronauts dehydrating themselves, since hydration effects your thinking and health, and that practice is banned. Now back to Mercury/1961 -)
By the next launch in June of 1961, provisions had been made.
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