There’s Poop on the Moon

When the Apollo boys visited the Moon back in the ’60s and ’70s they left more than just some experiments, rovers, and family portraits behind –- they also left, shall we say, a little bit of themselves on the lunar surface. It makes total sense when you think about it, but still… there’s poop on the Moon.

In this video, Minute Physics and Destin from Smarter Every Day show how astronauts would relieve themselves during the Apollo missions (or at least the gadgets they used — we all know how they did it) and why it was decided to make astronaut poop a permanent part of their lunar litter.

(Because there’s no public toilets in the Sea of Tranquility.)

In another video Destin goes on to discuss some of the other things the Apollo astronauts left on the lunar surface as part of their… duties… most notably the Laser Ranging Retroreflectors that are still being used today to measure distances between Earth and the Moon. Destin explains how their corner-cube reflectors work — using, fittingly, the mirrors in a restroom shared with NASA at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. Check out the video below.
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Read the rest of There’s Poop on the Moon (172 words)

© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Apollo, astronauts, bathroom, corner cube reflector, Minute Physics, Moon, NASA, poop, Smarter Every Day, space

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