MR ROOTER TO THE RESCUE

Space... The final frontier...

These are the voyages of the Mr Rooter.
His continuing mission:
To explore strange new worlds...
To seek out new life; new civilisations...

To boldly go where no plumber has gone before!"

Mr. Rooter's new mission is to go where no other plumber has gone before...the international space station, to repair a broken toilet.

The station's lone toilet is broken leaving the crew without a potty! NASA has jury-rigged a system for when the astronauts have to urinate. The Russian-made toilet hit the shitter when the motor stopped working. Russian engineers are not having a run of probable solutions. They have not been able to figure out the problem.

Help is on the way. The space shuttle Discovery is set to launch this weekend and it may bring some spare parts to the International Space Station. Adding new items to the shuttle is delicate business because the shuttle's payload weight is limited and balance carefully calculated. A last minute change is unusual.

I never really considered the problems presented by waste management on long missions in space. I am sure that all waste is recycled. That would be easy for air, water and clothing but what about garbage and sewage? Apparently they rely on partial cleansing, by removal of unpleasant chemicals and organic contaminants - feces - from the water. These are rendered inactive (but not inert or "safe") and returned to Earth in suitable containers, for final processing and disposal. The waste water, however, is fully treated and recycled.

Bagged and sealed and returned to Earth! I never really thought of the Space Shuttle as a glorified garbage truck before!