Aboard the International Space Station, ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti has now answered the age old question as to how astronauts dispose of their waste in space. Using the toilet in microgravity can also teach the crew unique ways how to deal when nature calls. 

Last Friday, the European Space Agency released a video where Cristoforetti demonstrated how the crew aboard the space station use the space toilet, taking viewers on a tour around the elaborate orbital space laboratory and lavatory.

Like Us on Facebook

The Italian astronaut demonstarated how to use the special devices that will be involved in the procedures that are pivotal to the two step process the astronauts apply aboard the ISS when they use the toilet. Urinating and defecating apparently involves the use of a small receptacle, a rubber suction hose and a special unit for recycling urine. 

Cristoforetti further explains that obviously unlike on Earth, the urine on the ISS is recycled in order to reduce the amount of water usage that is delivered to the space station that is currently located in lower Earth orbit.

She also adds that urine recycled on the ISS involves a complex filtration system and sanitation proess for the water to be utilized again by the crew. 

When the astronauts need to pee, they go into the station's toilet cabin where they can urinate into a rubber hose that possesses a suction mechanism to collect the urine. This suction system is truly effective since every kind of liquid material floats in microgravity. The hose collects this urine and then transported to the urine processing assembly that is recycled into water that the crew can readily drink.

When it comes to defecating, Cristoforetti explains that taking a space dump also involves a similar process. The suctioning hose is also used and the feces are now put into storage in the lab's waste tank that is changed every 10 days depending the crew size on the ISS.

There is also fan that creates a suction process in order to prevent smells and floating waste in microgravity. Solid waste is collected and stored and placed into cargo ferries where they burn up along with the cargo ferry ship that leaves the ISS.

Watch the video here uploaded by ESA as Cristoforetti explains the step by step process how astronauts dispose of their bodily wastes in the space station.

TagsESA, ISS, samantha cristoforetti, ESA video how to use the toilet, space station toilet tour, ESA toilet video ISS