Are you wearing a ‘Space Toilet’ or are you just happy to see me?

This is from the ‘what won’t they think of next’ department–a wearable toilet for astronauts that is being developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.  Although targeted at space explorers for obvious reasons, it doesn’t take a genius to think of many practical and hilarious applications for this. 

For instance, if you’ve ever tried to find any public restroom in downtown Berkeley, California, much less one you would want to use, you might not find a wearable toilet such a bad idea.

Think of the possibilities for software engineers at startups who don’t want to take a break from their programming, or MMORPG players who don’t want to leave their clans even temporarily or long-haul truckers who don’t want to stop their rigs for bio breaks. The possibilities are endless (no pun intended). 

Clean and easy to use, the envisioned space toilet is designed to be worn like a diaper around the astronaut’s waist at all times. Sensors detect when the user relieves him or herself, automatically activating a rear-mounted suction unit that draws the waste away from the body through tubes into a separate container. In addition to washing and drying the wearer after each use, the next-generation space toilet will incorporate features that eliminate unwanted sound and odor.

You can read the whole story here, at PinkTentacle.

In the 1950s, the Russians beat us in the race to Space…in the 2000s, the Japanese are beating us to the race to eliminate waste in Space…oh, how far we’ve fallen.

This entry was posted on 7. January 2009 at 22:32 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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