Article View: sci.space
Article #7359Re: DC-1 and the $23M NASA Toilet
From: Henry Spencer
Date: Thu, 07 Jan 1993 22:49
Date: Thu, 07 Jan 1993 22:49
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1638 bytes
In article <schumach.726431013@convex.convex.com> schumach@convex.com (Richard A. Schumacher) writes:
>>Unnecessarily, if so, since the solutions developed for Skylab actually
>>worked pretty well. (Notably, the Skylab toilet worked.) For rather
>>longer than a week, too.
>
>Uhhh... why didn't NASA just reuse the Skylab toilet on Shuttle?
Good question. I haven't seen a detailed explanation.
I think the excuse was that the Skylab toilet wasn't suited to use by
women, because it assumed anatomy that could urinate and defecate
separately. This has always struck me as the sort of problem a good
engineer could solve easily in any of several ways.
>One gets the impression that the number of competent people
>at NASA fell below critical mass quite some time ago...
A better way to put it, I think, is that contractor profits and "new
technology" now get priority over building something that works. It's
a fairly predictable result of no longer having a plan or a deadline.
--
"God willing... we shall return." | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
-Gene Cernan, the Moon, Dec 1972 | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!noc.near.net!hri.com!spool.mu.edu!darwin.sura.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!torn!utzoo!henry From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: Re: DC-1 and the $23M NASA Toilet Message-ID: <C0IA1z.Aqu@zoo.toronto.edu> Date: 7 Jan 93 22:49:08 GMT References: <1ige15INN30a@cbl.umd.edu> <C0H1n3.9ML@zoo.toronto.edu> <schumach.726431013@convex.convex.com> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 23