NASA Installs $23 Million Space Toilet, 65% Smaller and Built for Female Astronauts
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 16
NASA Installs $23 Million Space Toilet, 65% Smaller and Built for Female Astronauts
1 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 16
Summary
$23 million covered two Universal Waste Management System units—one now on the ISS and one for a future Moon mission—marking NASA’s latest overhaul of a basic but critical life-support system.
Six years of development focused on a flaw in older station toilets, whose seat and funnel geometry poorly fit women, especially during simultaneous urination and defecation in zero gravity.
The new UWMS is 65% smaller and 40% lighter than the previous ISS toilet, cutting mass, volume and power demands on a spacecraft where every kilogram and liter matter.
Urine from the system feeds the station’s recycling loop, which already recovers about 90% of water-based liquids; NASA wants that rate at 98% before future Mars missions.
The redesign also highlights a broader shift in space hardware assumptions, as NASA rethinks systems long built around a male default rather than the full range of astronaut bodies.