The Artemis II astronauts were forced to restrict their high-tech space toilet to solid waste only after a mysterious burning smell was detected in the cabin during their historic moon mission
Astronauts aboard Artemis II are only allowed to use the spacecraft’s £17.4million toilet for “faecal matter” after a grim burning smell was reported.
The dodgy loo had previously packed up shortly after launch, meaning crew members had to hold their bladders for six hours. Now the spacemen are being requested to cross their legs again, after mission specialist Christina Koch radioed Mission Control reporting a hideous burning aroma drifting round the rocket.
Koch said: “Regarding the smell, I just wanted to make sure you all were tracking the EGS notes of the kind of burning heater smell that was coming from toilet several times. It was never identified as the source, what it exactly was, but it was identified as an unknown smell.”
The crew likened the smell to that of an old electric heater that’s been left unused for some time.
Initially Nasa flight controllers suspected the odour was coming from the orange insulation on the toilet’s hygiene bay door, but they’ve yet to confirm the cause.
Despite the mystery Mission Control gave the crew the green light to continue using the high-tech lavatory, assuring there were “no major concerns” about the peculiar scent.
Hours later astronauts were informed that the problematic loo would have to be limited to solid waste only.
A second waste water was described by the crew as “lacking volume”, meaning all liquid must now be dealt with “collapsible contingency urinals”.
The most recent disposal reduced the amount of waste water to 15%, and the Orion spacecraft has now rotated to a position that will allow sunlight to hit the waste water vents and defrost any liquid inside.
The Orion is currently two-thirds of the way to the moon and is set for a lunar flyby by Monday.
The Artemis II – the most powerful rocket ever constructed – roared into the sky on 1 April, exiting Earth’s orbit yesterday to commence its three-day mission to the Moon.
It marks the first manned Moon mission since Nasa’s Apollo 11, which made its lunar journey in 1972.
The four crew members on board are Nasa’s Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen.
The crew won’t make a pit stop or orbit the Moon like Apollo 8’s inaugural lunar visitors did so famously on Christmas Eve 1968.
They will then travel a further 4,000 miles beyond, before executing a U-turn and racing directly home to a splashdown in the Pacific.
Stunning images from aboard the Orion reveal the Earth from roughly 100,000 miles away.
A spectacular full view photograph captured from the Orion capsule and released yesterday displays the boundary between night and day, known as the terminator, slicing across Earth.