Grim actuality for stranded astronauts left to drink recycled pee and ‘dodge poo’

Two astronauts floating in space could have to dodge poo and recycle pee.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are stranded in the International Space Station until February next year after helium leaked in the Boeing Starliner spacecraft they need to get home. Butch, 61, and Suni, 58, are now floating around 200 miles above the Earth.

British astronaut Meganne Christian told The Sun that Butch and Suni will have something of a grim existence on the spacecraft. They won’t be able to have showers, will have to drink recycled urine and even face radiation, Meganne said.

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The 36-year-old said: “Suni and Butch were prepared for a long-duration mission should it happen. Space is hard, that is the line that we always take.”

Meganne, who is part of the European Space Agency’s astronaut reserve team, said she knows what life is like stranded in a remote place. She lived in a remote research station in Antarctica from 2018 to 2019.

The station, known as White Mars, is around 400 miles from civilisation. “You have to reuse and recycle as much as possible. They say ‘yesterday’s coffee is today’s coffee,” Meganne explained. “That sounds disgusting. But by the time it gets to you it’s just pure water again.”

The smell is also likely to affect Butch and Suni. “There are no showers,” Meganne said. “There are ways to wash yourself. You basically use a sort of wet towel with a bit of soap on it.

“You can only take a certain amount of clothing with you, so really, astronauts only change their clothes once per week.”

Radiation is also a problem, due to the higher levels astronauts are exposed to despite ISS shields. This, while the astronauts are not getting enough exercise in their muscles, can make them unhealthy over time.

“The longer you’re out there up in space the more harm it does to your body,” Meganne said. “It really is accelerated ageing, in a way.”

“The fact that you’re not working against gravity means that your muscles are not working as hard as they usually would, and of course, your heart is also a muscle.

“You also lose bone density during that time and you also have an increased risk of kidney stones, diabetes and there also tend to be problems with your eyes.”

Thankfully, “most of these things” go back to normal once people touch back down to Earth and start to recover and there is a gym on the ISS that can help. Astronauts are asked to spend around 90 minutes a day exercising.

Bodily fluids, meanwhile, are collected by a special type of suction toilet, stopping pee and poo from floating around in space.

The first Brit to board the ISS, Time Peake, said: “We pee into a hose that has a conical-shaped receptacle with a switch on the side.

“For a number two, there is a rather petite loo seat secured on top of a solid waste container. Attached is a rubberised bag with an elasticated opening.”

Tim even said the crew were once warned about a missing turd. He also said that the skin flakes on your feet begin to fly off because they aren’t being used as much, due to zero gravity.

There should be enough to do for Butch and Suni, despite the sun rising and setting every 90 minutes taking a little getting used to. Each astronaut has chores to complete and their own computer to use.

“Everybody gets the vacuum cleaners and that kind of thing out on a Saturday and puts the music on and checks the filters for anything that’s flown into them during the week,” Meganne also said.

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