PointNiner: NASA Needs Your Urine

NASA is at it again. This time their number one priority is collecting all the urine they can find, from anyone. NASA engineers are in the process of designing the Orion space capsule, which is one of the vehicles that will eventually take astronauts to the moon and be in space for a much longer time than any previous NASA missions, orbiting unoccupied in space for up to six months.

What is the big deal you ask? Getting rid of all the stored urine. According to NASA, urine is full of solids which clog up the urine venting system over a period of time. During a mission, the Orion capsule will be expected to process 30 liters a day, which translates into nearly 8 gallons of straight up urine. There is no such thing as "simulated urine" and there is only one way to get it, from the tap.

I hope they can get the toilet issue resolved so no other problems come up like the recent toilet issues on the ISS.

Below is what the memo actually said:

Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 3:00 PM
Subject: Urine Collection Study Donor Request
Who: All Houston-SLS Associates, employees at 2200 Space Park, and any visitors to the building
What: Please donate your urine to our study
When: Monday, July 21 - Thursday, July 31 from 6 a.m. until goal amount is collected each day including weekends

The Orion Program will be holding a urine collection study starting Monday, July 21 and running through Thursday, July 31, 2008. We are looking for
donors as we need to collect a large amount of urine per day for the entire
11 day period. [...]

We will be hosting an informational meeting with encouraged attendance for
potential urine donors from 11-11:30 a.m. Thursday, July 17, 2008 in the
first floor conference room. In this meeting we will go over instructions
and guidelines for the study and introduce volunteers to the equipment that
will be used in the study. [...]

Please see the attached Donor Guide for further information on donating.