dcn@ihuxl.UUCP (Dave Newkirk) (03/28/86)
While one group at Marshall worked on medical experiments, another group was coming to grips with a more complex problem: providing a system of waste management in the workshop. The problem had new dimensions for Skylab. Previous programs had required no more than a sanitary method of collecting and disposing of body wastes with a minimum of handling; but for Skylab, the medical experiments required collection, measurement, and return of both urine and feces for analysis. Gemini and Apollo systems would not do, even if - as they were not - they had been ideal from the user's point of view. [...] Since the problems of separating air from liquid and of volume measurement did not arise with solid wastes, the fecal collection system was in good shape by the end of 1969. Its principal problem arose out of the difficulty of conclusive testing in zero g. The zero-g condition could be maintained for only about 30 seconds in the KC-135 aircraft, and the device had to be tested in that short period. Urination could be successfully simulated by mechanical devices, and a urine-collecting device was easy to test; but defecation could not be simulated. Test subjects who could perform on cue were needed. The Huntsville office was able to find a few people with this talent, and in November 1969 two days of aircraft testing produced nine good `data points' for the fecal collector. (Excerpt from "Living and Working in Space - A History of Skylab", NASA SP-4208, for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Gov't Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402) -- Dave Newkirk, ihnp4!ihuxl!dcn