“Gravity-Defying Dilemmas: The Ingenious Solutions Astronauts Use to Conquer the Ultimate Space Challenge!”
But while this strategy worked well enough for Mercury, as NASA transitioned over to the longer-duration Gemini and Apollo flights, the problem of collecting #2 could no longer be ignored. But the solution they came up with, the Fecal Collection Assembly or FCA, would prove to be one of the most reviled pieces of hardware in the history of spaceflight. Manufactured by the Whirlpool Corporation, the FCA consisted of a small clear plastic bag with an adhesive gasket intended to seal the opening to the astronaut’s bare buttocks. Ordinarily, back on earth bowel movements are separated from the anus by good old gravity, but in the microgravity of space, this does not occur. The FCA thus featured a small pouch or cot in its side wall into which the astronaut could insert their finger to help dislodge stubborn turds. Lovely. Once the deed was done, the FCA came packaged with sheets of toilet paper and wet wipes with which the astronaut could clean themselves, which were disposed of inside the bag along with the astronaut’s…leavings. But if this whole process already sounds completely undignified – especially if performed in front of others in the cramped confines of a spacecraft – brace yourselves, because it gets even worse. Unlike urine, there was no mechanism to jettison the filled FCAs, which instead had to be stored onboard. But without further treatment, the bacteria-riddled droppings would quickly ferment and produce gases like methane, causing the bags to inflate and possibly burst – resulting in the most literal manifestation of the expression “the shit hitting the fan.” Each FCA thus came packaged with a packet of germicidal liquid, which the astronaut was supposed to insert into the bag before sealing it. They would burst the packet by squeezing it, then thoroughly knead the germicide into the poop to ensure that all the gas-generating bacteria were killed.
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