In 1961, the former Soviet astronaut Gagarin roamed in space for 108 minutes on the Vostok-1 spacecraft, unveiling the prelude to human entry into space. After that, American astronaut Armstrong successfully landed on the moon, taking a big step in the history of human spaceflight. So far, more than 500 astronauts have been launched into space around the world, working hours ranging from hours to months.
No matter how long these astronauts stay in space, the last thing they must do is to organize supplies and pack luggage, including all kinds of daily necessities , experimental materials, etc., all have to be sorted into categories, and then put into the return cabin. But in these luggage, there is a special kind of item, that is the excrement of astronauts. What to do with this waste? Should it be brought back to Earth or thrown directly into space?
People’s daily life is always inseparable from eating, drinking and leasing. We are like this on the ground, and the astronauts in the space station are no exception. According to statistics, during the six months they were in space, they produced about 400 kilograms of excrement. Such a huge amount must not be left on the space station, so how to deal with it has become a problem.
First of all, excrement is divided into two parts, one is urine and the other is stool. On Earth, this type of excrement goes straight down the drain, but in space stations with limited resources, pee can be recycled< span>.
96% of the urine of a normal adult is water. After the urine is purified by a special purifier, the extracted water can be directly consumed. Although it doesn’t sound so comfortable, for a space station with limited supplies, this solves a big problem. Because water is an essential substance for the human body, it is very difficult for people to survive without water.
And the load-bearing capacity of the space station is limited, and the materials sent to space with the astronauts are enough for one or two months, during which time freight is required The spaceship is constantly replenishing supplies. The water in the astronauts’ urine is extracted through a special purifier, and six liters of urine can extract five liters of water, which greatly relieves the pressure on the space station’s material shortage. If you feel that the water converted from urine is difficult to swallow, you can use this water for washing, so as not to waste resources.
In addition to the astronauts’ urine, the wash water of the space station can also be purified, which can be converted into pure water, the purpose is to Recycle and reuse.
Secondly, the other component of excrement is not like urine, which can be purified and then recycled. The stool is actually equivalent to food residue, without any secondary use. value, so in space, stool is packed in a dehydrated and dry manner.
The space station is weightless in space, any object is floating in the air, So how to remove the excrement What about packing?
In order to keep the space station clean and tidy, the toilet in the bathroom adopts the technology of negative pressure extraction. The stool is collected in a special processing device, dried, and then sealed and packaged, which greatly saves the space of the space station, and effectively blocks the smell. The whole process does not require the manual participation of astronauts. Convenient and fast.
Then all the excrement is packed Afterwards, what to do with them?
In the early days of spaceflight, astronaut excrement was thrown directly into space< span>. When astronauts leave space, they will throw some useless things such as excrement directly into space. This will not only reduce the weight of the returning spacecraft, but also do not have to think of a way to deal with these garbage after returning to Earth. At the time, it seemed like a two-pronged approach.
But with the advancement of science and technology, human beings have explored the universe to a deeper level. The traces of human beings are all over the universe, and more and more astronauts and aircraft, as well as some exploration satellites, have been sent into space, which puts a certain degree of pressure on the universe. Whether it’s astronaut excrement or the remains of a spacecraft or rocket, these things left in space will eventually become space junk.
These junk wander aimlessly in space, and accidentally collide with a running spacecraft or satellite, causing irreparable damage. In 2021, one of my country’s exploration satellites, Yunhai-1 02, was hit by space junk, causing the satellite to temporarily lose contact with the ground.
Not only that, space junk is sometimes attracted by the earth’s gravity and falls into the atmosphere, posing a threat to ground safety. So throwing excrement into space is a very dangerous behavior.
In order to deal with these space junk that hinder our exploration of the universe, human beings have to launch some aircraft into space. After these aircraft reach space, they will cast a “big net” , to capture the space junk, and then manipulate the aircraft to bring the space junk into the atmosphere, and use the high heat generated by friction with the atmosphere to destroy the space junk.
So for the sake of safety, people finally decided to adopt a similar method, using a cargo spacecraft to transport these excrement back to the earth, and let them burn and destroy together with the cargo spacecraft in the atmosphere , which will neither cause space junk nor have any impact on the ground.
So how are the excrement-laden cargo ships destroyed in the atmosphere?
Cargo spaceships are generally one-offs, and their mission is to transport goods into space, mainly food, fuel, and instruments. After the cargo spacecraft transports the cargo into space, the astronauts take out the cargo, and then the astronauts will put the excrement and other domestic wastes that need to be taken away into the cargo spacecraft. After everything was completed, the ground began to control the return of the cargo ship. After accurately entering the return orbit, the cargo spacecraft will descend at an extremely fast speed due to the gravitational force of the earth. The thick outer shell generates light and heat in the process of friction with the air molecules, and then the cargo spacecraft will burn and catch fire, excretion will be excreted. rubbish and other items are destroyed together with themselves.
However, not all cargo ships can be completely destroyed during the return process. Some ships with excessive load or ships with relatively heat-resistant shells will not be completely destroyed. . This is nothing to worry about, because spacecraft in space all have predetermined orbits, especially disposable aircraft like cargo spacecraft, which basically land on the boundless sea. Because the sea is vast and sparsely populated, the landing of the spacecraft will not bring any danger to the ground, so the wreckage of the spacecraft that is not completely destroyed will fall into the sea, which is also a way of destruction.
Sometimes we see a single meteor streak across the sky at night and make a wish on it. A cargo ship that is being destroyed!
The wisdom of human beings is endless. From the initial beautiful vision of “Chang’e flying to the moon” to the actual entry of the “space home”, every success is the progress of the times . In the future, more and more astronauts will go to space, and it may no longer be a dream to live on another planet.
References:
Zhou Jun “How to clean up space junk” HowNet 2022.1.20
Space craft “Will the cargo spaceship be burnt up during the return to the atmosphere?” CNKI 2018.9.7
Author: Xiao Abe Reviewer: Sherry Proofreading Editor: Li Zi