Overview
As the saying goes, "food is the most important thing for people". People must be inseparable from three meals a day every day, and after eating, excretion is inevitable. From ancient times to the present, from princes and nobles to ordinary people, there are no exception.
However, the toilet conditions of the ancients were far less convenient than we are now. 's earliest toilets were also very simple and crude. They often just dig a hole and then bury them after they are done.
And with the development of modern technology, the conditions for solving internal urgent problems have also been greatly improved, and people will no longer feel ashamed of toilet problems.
In theory, modern people should no longer be troubled by the toilet problem. However, after started our space industry, this problem once again stumped astronauts and aerospace scientists.
This is because in the space environment, people’s “three urgent” are really embarrassing.
U.S. moon landing
WWII After the end of , the world entered a peaceful period of rest and recuperation. However, behind the calm appearance, the surging dark tide has never stopped.
This time, the world's powerful countries put the competition of their forces on the space industry, especially the two powerful countries at that time, namely the United States and the Soviet Union.
By 1961, Soviet astronaut Gagarin boarded the Oriental-1 spacecraft, opening the precedent for spacecraft to explore the universe by manned spacecraft. Gagarin also became the first person on earth to enter space.
Although the Soviet Union won the first battle, the United States was not willing to fall behind and quickly implemented the Apollo moon landing plan.
6 From 1961 to 1972, it took 11 years and cost US$25.5 billion. The United States launched the Apollo series spacecraft to the moon, conducted field investigations on the moon, and successfully completed the moon landing plan.
It can be said that Apollo moon landing plan is an epoch-making achievement in the history of world aerospace. Half a century after a successful moon landing, the United States announced another major event that shocked the world - They will restart their moon landing plan and send astronauts to the moon again.
The purpose of this moon landing is, in addition to the renewed investigation of the moon, there is also a purpose that seems a bit shameful to say , that is, to retrieve the diapers that were once discarded on the moon by astronauts.
people have three urgent needs, which no one can avoid, and so are astronauts. Although
is very inconvenient to excrete in space environment, they cannot control their physiological needs. As a result, the excretion problem of once brought a very embarrassing experience to astronauts.
Astronauts' toilet problems
Eating, drinking, defecation, and urinating is undoubtedly an ordinary thing for the people on earth. However, it is not easy for astronauts to meet these needs.
After solving the problem of astronauts' eating, has another new problem in front of engineers, that is, the excretion problem.
In the period when the aerospace industry was not developed, engineers proposed a solution to this problem.
Before the astronauts take off on a manned spacecraft, they will be arranged to urinate and enema. The urine during space travel is stored directly in the collection bag, and urinate in space once when returning to Earth.
In the 1960s, toilets were also set up for astronauts in aircraft, but unfortunately this toilet was not designed very well.
In the early space program , because there was no suitable bowel movement plan, engineers had to do nothing in space suits.
Before wearing a space suit, astronauts also need to wear a close-fitting cotton underwear. This underwear has very good water absorption performance. In a desperate situation, astronauts can choose to "solve it on the spot".
The astronaut of the United States' first manned space flight program Alan Shepard has experienced such an embarrassing thing.
At that time, the engineers thought the flight was only a short ten minutes, so they did not prepare a discharge plan for Shepard.
However, during the actual launch, the time of stay of the astronauts in the spacecraft is uncertain. Not long after she was on the launch pad, Shepard felt that his bladder could not hold back and needed to solve his physiological problems.
Obviously, the flight plan will not be affected by his personal harmless trivial matters. So, NASA told Shepherd that it would be better to just urinate in the space suit. Anyway, cotton underwear has good water absorption and will dry soon.
Just like that, Shepard became the first person to "piss his pants" in space.
However, after that, engineers began to perform excretion designs to provide astronauts with the most comfortable environment.
Later, had a Chinese engineer named Tang Xinyuan . He discovered a special material with excellent water absorption performance and used this material to design a "large-sized diapers" suitable for astronauts.
This kind of diapers has extremely strong absorption. data shows that this diapers can withstand 400 times heavier than its mass .
Due to the emergence of this diapers, Apollo astronauts can move outside the capsule for up to 6 hours.
It is worth mentioning that the Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei , who took off on the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft, was also wearing special diapers at the time.
Diapers became a wild "laboratory"
After successfully landing on the moon, American astronauts not only conducted field investigations on the moon, but also brought back more than 300 kilograms of precious lunar soil. When left, they also left 96 bags of special "gifts", namely diapers.
At that time, the space toilet had not appeared. In order to solve the excretion problem of astronauts, NASA arranged for them to wear special diapers in their space suits, which could solve physiological problems on the spot when they were moving on the moon.
Just like that, from Apollo 11 to Apollo 16 , 12 American astronauts landed on the moon, all wearing diapers.
In order to reduce the weight of the spacecraft and return smoothly, left the moon, astronauts left their diapers on the moon.
So, why does the United States want to get these diapers back?
This is because The feces excreted by humans contain a large amount of bacteria, and life is slowly evolved from such subtle substances.
Therefore, scientists believe that these 96 bags of diapers are like wild "laborations", providing a living environment for microorganisms in excrement.
If these microorganisms have been alive in the "laboratory" for half a century on the moon, it means that still has the possibility of life being born even in extremely harsh conditions like the moon.
Although the possibility of these microorganisms survival is slim due to cosmic radiation and temperature, scientists still have expectations for this. After all, everything in the world is absolutely absolute. What if a miracle really happens?
Conclusion
For humans, the universe is a mysterious existence full of unknowns, and we have always had romantic imaginations of the vast universe.
Even though human technology is not enough to realize these imaginations one by one, the pace of exploration will never stop, and technology is also improving. I believe that in the future, human beings will be able to learn the mysteries of the universe bit by bit.
