Broken toilet, T-shirts on windows and collecting saliva: The weirdness of daily life aboard Orion

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The Orion spacecraft may only be the size of two minivans on the inside — but for the Artemis II astronauts, the capsule taking them to the vicinity of the moon has already proved to be larger than life.

As the backdrop of many unforgettable moments of life on board, including the quirky and the breathtaking, the spacecraft — nicknamed Integrity by NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen — is becoming its own character in the story of humanity’s return to the moon for the first time in more than half a century.

The crew capsule is vastly improved compared with its Apollo equivalent, the Command Module, with about 60 per cent more habitable space and amenities such as a toilet and exercise machine.

But even with 50 years of more advanced technology factored in, the spacecraft is still essentially a basic habitat that’s designed with efficiency, not comfort, in mind.

Luckily, we’re able to witness quite a bit of what happens onboard, as the spacecraft is equipped with 32 camera and devices, 15 of which are mounted on the capsule itself, and 17 of which are handheld and operated by the crew.

Sleeping upside down

Once Orion reached Earth orbit after launch, two of the crew seats, as well as the footholds of the other two seats, were stowed away and will remain that way until reentry at the mission’s end. This gives the crew a bit more space, but it doesn’t make the interior of the capsule less cluttered, with wires, screens, instruments, cupboards and a multitude of Velcro-equipped pockets and bags to keep stuff from flying around.

Forget the aesthetics of “2001: A Space Odyssey” — Orion looks more like a mad scientist’s lab than a sci-fi living quarter. Specially designed sleeping bags hang across the walls for the astronauts to strap into when it’s time for some shut-eye.

But in space, there is no up and down — nor a floor and a ceiling, for that matter — to dictate exactly how you should spend your downtime.

“Christina has been sleeping heads down in the middle of the vehicle, kind of like a bat suspended from our docking tunnel,” Commander Wiseman said on Thursday. “Victor has a nice little nook wedged in there. And then Jeremy has been stretched out on seat one, and I’ve been sleeping under the displays, just in case anything goes wrong. Every time I was dozing off last night, I had that image that I was tripping off a curb and I was waking myself up. So my body is getting reacclimated.”

Surprisingly, the astronauts are enjoying the suspended sleeping arrangements. “Well, we do love sleeping up here,” Koch said. “Most of us have been sleeping really well. For me, sleeping in space is one of the most comfortable ways to sleep, and it’s very deep, full sleep.

When it’s time to wake up, following a tradition that dates back to the Apollo program, mission control plays a song from a selection compiled by the crew. But sometimes, the song stops too soon, like when “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan was playing. “We were all eagerly awaiting the chorus,” a slightly disgruntled Wiseman said.

T-shirts on windows

It turns out the temperature inside Orion is quite chilly — so much so that Glover said he wished they had brought different sleeping bags with them. During the first couple of days, mission control worked with the crew to warm up the cabin.

However, the sun is shining upon the spacecraft with such might that on mission “Day 3″, controllers got worried that the windows were heating up too much.

“We have a small request,” they told the crew, “we’re getting the sun on the window shades, and we’re worried about them heating up too much. Please remove the windows shades — we understand that will make it awfully bright for you guys, and we want to encourage you to use a T-shirt in the cabin or something similar to block the sunlight. That will help with the temperature on the windows.”

And speaking of windows, Wiseman said that the windows of Orion are already dirty because the crew enjoyed looking out of them so much. He then asked mission control for the procedures to clean them.

Toilet troubles

The toilet aboard Orion might well be considered a luxury — Apollo astronauts did not have one. But the system started showing signs of trouble shortly into the flight and eventually malfunctioned as flight Day 3 was winding down. This meant that only solid waste could be deposited into the commode.

“It’s an issue with dumping the waste out of the toilet,” Artemis II Flight Director Judd Frieling told reporters Saturday morning. “And so it appears to me that we probably have some frozen urine in the vent line.”

To fix the issue, the spacecraft was oriented toward the sun to melt the clogging ice, and eventually the toilet was fixed. “Breaking news,” mission control’s capsule communicator Jacki Mahaffey told the crew. “You are go for all types of use of the toilet.”

“And the crew rejoices!” Koch replied. “Thank you!”

Not everything about the onboard toilet was ugly, however: The venting of urine outside the capsule was a moment Koch showed on camera earlier in the mission. The pee trickles by like glowing gems in the vacuum of space.

In space, no one can see you shower

There was a viral moment on social media on Friday night when, after an exercise session, Glover took his shirt off to “shower” with wipes. While no actual showers are possible, each astronaut has a personal kit including no-rinse shampoo, baby wipes, toothbrushes and shaving accessories.

NASA cut the feed at first, but when the astronauts said they were “OK” with it being broadcast, the livestream from inside the capsule, including a shirtless Glover, continued.

Collecting astronaut spit

Among the tasks the crew tackles upon waking up each day is spitting into a tube.

This part of the daily routine is part of an immunology study to analyze the changes in human physiology in space. The saliva samples are collected before the astronauts brush their teeth or exercise, and the collection process involves “blotting saliva onto special paper stored in pocket-sized booklets,” according to NASA.

The collection method is necessary due to the absence of a refrigerator onboard, preventing liquid samples from being stored. The program aims to ensure that humans can thrive in space by investigating what effects space travel can have on our bodies.

189 unique menu items

Orion lacks a fridge, but space food experts have worked with the Artemis II astronauts to provide a tasty variety of shelf-stable meals that will power the crew through the 10-day mission.

The crew has access to a whopping 189 menu items that need to be rehydrated — shrimp cocktail in a bag, anyone? Other options include barbecued beef brisket, broccoli au gratin, vegetable quiche, couscous with nuts, mango salad, spicy green beans, and macaroni and cheese.

Among the luxuries are a briefcase-size food warmer to make mealtime a little more comforting — as well as sweet treats like cake, pudding, cobbler, cookies, chocolate and candy-coated almonds.

In addition to an ambient-temperature water from a dispenser, the astronauts can sip on fruit juices, coffee, tea, smoothies and chocolate breakfast drinks.

The Artemis II astronauts have a jam-packed schedule, but they made time for a traditional Easter egg hunt on Sunday, except it was “dehydrated scrambled eggs” that were hidden around the cabin.

One perk of microgravity? Some treats items may literally be available to grab as they float through the cabin — like a jar of Nutella spread that was seen flying by during the live stream.

But here’s one big limitation: Nothing that can crumble is on the menu, as crumbs are a big no-no in space. As discovered during the Apollo program when astronauts tried to eat sandwiches in space, crumbs from bread can fly around in the absence of gravity and end up in astronauts’ eyes or lungs and get stuck inside equipment, causing damage. So the crew will munch on tortillas and wheat flatbread to prevent a crumb-causing catastrophe.

Calling tech support

On the first day of the mission, the crew encountered technical problems with the personal computing devices or PCD, prompting Wiseman to utter a quote that has become a meme: “I have two Microsoft Outlooks and neither one is working,” he said.

Later in the mission, it was Koch’s turn to experience IT drama. “No joy seeing the device in the list of available devices when I attempt to repair it after doing the Bluetooth forget,” she said.

Some things never change whether you’re on Earth or in space.

‘Baby hair’

“There are no words,” says the caption in Wiseman’s first social media post during the mission, showing a breathtaking view of Earth from Orion.

The astronauts aren’t directly posting on social media, but they have handed over their accounts to NASA for posting on their behalf. However, the crew is busy taking some of the most spectacular space photographs we’ve ever seen.

Koch commented on the “phenomenal views” of Earth, detailing rivers and thunderclouds that were highlighted by the setting sun. “You guys look great,” she said, referring to Earth.

As astronauts got closer to the flyby of the moon, they could already see our planet’s satellite in unprecedented detail. “The moon we’re looking at is not the moon you see from Earth whatsoever — you can actually see the terrain,” Koch said.

“Nothing prepares you for the breathtaking aspect of seeing your home planet both lit up bright as day and also the moon glow on it at night, with the beautiful beam of the sunset. And knowing that we’re going to get similar views of the moon, I’m just, I’m really excited for that,” she added.

The views during the lunar flyby that the astronauts captured at their closest point to the moon led to several truly emotional moments for the crew. “After all of the amazing sites that we we saw earlier, we just went sci-fi,” Glover said. “You can actually see a majority of the moon. It is the strangest looking thing that you can see so much on the surface.”

At the end of the flyby, the astronauts got to experience a solar eclipse, during which they reported seeing streamers in the sun’s outer atmosphere, or solar corona, visible around the moon. Glover described the streamers as looking like “baby hair.”

“If you’ve ever seen the spotlight off the top of the Luxor at night in Las Vegas,” he continued, “this looks like what that wants to be when it grows up.”

The response from mission control was “Glad to hear you’re following your training of ‘tell it like you see it!’”

The incredible views seem to be making all of the hard work that has led to the mission, and the sacrifices that come with it, well worth it. “We feel very well taken care of. They thought of everything,” Koch said.

There have undoubtedly been more emotional moments on board, but most remain private; the calls between the astronauts and their families are not broadcasted.

“This morning, when my two daughters came on, and it was just the three of us talking, it was surreal,” revealed Wiseman about his first such call. “We’re up here, we’re far away, and for a moment, I was reunited with my little family, and it was just the greatest moment of my entire life.”

By Jacopo Prisco, Ashley Strickland, Jackie Wattles, CNN