I'm feeling a little bad about having missed Friday's post, so here's a little addendum to today's:
One of the exhibits in the Brooklyn's Children's Museum is called "Living in Space." It was created in collaboration with NASA and inspired by the International Space Station. According to the Museum's press pack, kids can "experience sleeping, dressing, and working like astronauts-- becomeing ISS crewmembers for a day."
Noticeably absent from the Press Pack's description of "Living in Space" is the part of the exhibition called "How to Potty in Space." Here, there is sort of a replica of a little space station bathroom. It looks just like an airplane lavatory, except that the toilet is covered in a piece of clear plastic with a target painted on it. Next to the toilet there is a plaque with these instructions:
How to Potty in Space:
1. Attach the target to your backside
2. Using the monitor try to line up that target to the one on the toilet.
Next to these instructions is this picture:
Attached to the wall there is a blue felt target with a strap attached to it, next to a computer monitor.
While I was standing there, trying to figure everything out, a little boy came in and almost pushed me out of the way to strap the target around his waist and sit down on the toilet.
I admire the frankness of this exhibit, but I have to admit that the display left me with more questions than answers: How do targets and computer monitors really come into play when astronauts use the restroom? Is the felt pad represented here strictly anecdotal, or do astronauts employ some sort of motion-sensored bullseye to help line things up?
If I haven't wondered how to potty in space before, I certainly do now.
Anyone? Anyone?
3 comments:
omg hilarious. the potential for a autovoyeurism alone is enough to make a punchline totally unnecessary in that story. Some museum curator was clearly reading about the Gemini/Soyuz docking missions and was like, how can we get kids to understand this?
Pooping. Kids love pooping. I wonder how often they have to clean off that buttpad and hose out the room. They're kind of asking for trouble.
I thought that EVERYONE wondered about how astronauts pooped. And -- I can tell you this -- reality is a whole lot better than I'd envisioned!
excellent information, it is one of the most important things ever
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