Artemis II debuts Moon mission's first real bathroom

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Artemis II has achieved another milestone beyond lunar orbit.

The crewed mission now gets a private, functional toilet.

After decades of “objectionable” and “distasteful” waste management practices dating back to the infamous plastic bags and floating debris of the Apollo missions, NASA has finally unveiled its Universal Waste Management System (UWMS).

This 3D-printed titanium device finally enables astronauts to urinate and defecate simultaneously, for both men and women, and has a solid door for privacy.

In the previous crewed mission, Apollo had a toiled solution that was so leak-prone that astronauts reported a “turd floating through the air.”

The UWMS was developed by Collins Aerospace since 2015 and was first tested on the ISS in 2020.

This lunar version, now installed inside the Orion capsule ahead of Artemis II, represents a half-century advancement over messy bag-based solutions with vacuum-assisted simultaneous processing.

NASA project manager Melissa McKinley stated, “I am very excited for the crew to use this. It’s really going to drive waste management on future Artemis and Mars missions.”

With Artemis II, astronauts will finally get a viable bathroom solution after 50 years.