
Let's talk about peeing in space - etxm
https://twitter.com/MaryRobinette/status/1152277166996017152
======
captn3m0
The author (Mary Robinette Kowal) has a Nebula-winning twin-book series which
cover an alternate timeline where humanity went to Mars instead of the Moon.
The books[1] are a really great read (have a Hidden Figures meets
Macgyver/Martian vibe and I loved them).

If you'd like a sample, her Hugo winning novella, "The Lady Astronaut of Mars"
(which was expanded into the above 2 books) is available as a free read on
Tor.com: [https://www.tor.com/2013/09/11/the-lady-astronaut-of-
mars/](https://www.tor.com/2013/09/11/the-lady-astronaut-of-mars/)

It was one of my favorite reads of 2013, and you'll greatly enjoy it.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Calculating_Stars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Calculating_Stars)

------
013a
> The sheaths came in small, medium, and large. It turns out, the men were all
> saying that they needed a Large sheath. They did not. Subsequently, the
> astronauts called the sheaths were called "Extra-large," "Immense," and
> "Unbelievable."

This is a really similar story to one from Trojan condoms, IIRC, whereby
everyone was buying the Large size, so the Magnum was born.

I'd believe it in a heartbeat for Trojan, but I have a hard time believing it
in the context of a NASA aerospace program. Maybe they joked about it, and the
larger size names were born out of that joke, but I can't believe that NASA
didn't have doctors and engineers sizing the sheaths for each astronaut, or at
least making the decision for the astronauts from the sizes they had. This
isn't like they were walking into a walmart and had to decide on their own;
this was a multi-million dollar first-of-its-kind space program.

~~~
nexuist
>but I can't believe that NASA didn't have doctors and engineers sizing the
sheaths for each astronaut

I understand there's science and professionalism and all but....could you
justify measuring dick length to a bunch of astronauts? Not to mention the
length changes over time and also nobody wants to be the small sheath
surrounded by extra large...

~~~
kinkrtyavimoodh
These astronauts undergo rigorous medical checks where every inch of their
body is checked and double-checked. And they already come from an armed forces
background where detailed medical checks are very common and there is zero
shame about nudity. I am pretty sure they would not have had qualms about it
if it was indeed necessary. Their space suits are already sized to their
specific dimensions.

Also, why does the sheath size have to be such a public thing?

------
carrozo
The technology is also useful down here on Earth when one astronaut wants to
drive 950 miles without stopping to confront the lover of another.

[https://www.denverpost.com/2007/02/05/diaper-wearing-
astrona...](https://www.denverpost.com/2007/02/05/diaper-wearing-astronaut-
jailed-in-love-triangle-plot/)

~~~
azalemeth
To be fair, some people just like diapers...
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaper_fetishism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaper_fetishism))

------
ra88it
People are complaining that this is painful to read on Twitter, so I expected
it would be painful.

Then I actually followed the link and it was delightful! I'm not really a fan
or a detractor from the medium, but I don't understand the hate in this
particular context.

PS: What a lovely thread about the reality of peeing in space!

~~~
geofft
Also, the author is the president of the Science Fiction Writers of America, a
Hugo and Nebula award winner, an audiobook narrator, a podcaster, and a
puppeteer, and a blogger. I'm pretty sure she has a good grasp of what medium
is suitable for what content.

(I, too, thought it was fine and quite reasonable.)

~~~
DonHopkins
A Pierson's Puppeteer? With two heads??!

------
Daviey
As a scuba diver, we often spend 6+ hours away from toilet facilities, and
good hydration is important. With a wet suit, you can just pee and it will
wash out.

However, with a dry suit it is similar to a spacesuit. It is a pain to de-suit
just to go for a pee (some of the old-timers have zips that allow them to pee
above water, but it isn't very common.. and I prefer to pee underwater).

Many people use pee-valves which work in a similar way to the twitter thread.
External catheters which are like condoms with glue inside, and a tube which
allows the liquid to escape outside the suit.

Trouble is, I didn't know my "size". The medical company that makes them will
post a selection of each type and a "sizing chart". The chart is a cardboard
disc with cutouts that you can use to measure up against your body. For the
same reasons as the thread, they use measuring in millimeters rather than
t-shirt sizes.

A few days later, I was on a road trip with my daughter and the company called
to see if I received the pack and was able to place a real order. I answered
on hands-free and I was asked, "What size will you need sir?". How could I
possibly answer that sat next to my daughter? :o

For female divers, the main option is a pad and glue. Sounds awful.

~~~
mlevental
>How could I possibly answer that sat next to my daughter? :o

i'm not trying to start a fight but i will never understand this. you're
embarrassed to talk about your body in front of your daughter. what's the
point? i remember my mom had a UTI and was embarrassed to discuss it with me
when we were on a trip (so she suffered in kisilence). this woman whose body i
literally was created in couldn't bring herself to tell me about something
normal/typical about her body because of what? puritan culture? i will never
get it.

Edit: why am I getting downvoted? What have I said that's so offensive?

~~~
Daviey
This isn't related to a medical issue. This is reluctance to share with my
child the specific size of my genitalia. You think that is peculiar?

~~~
mlevental
You had a phone call that completely perfunctorily implicated the size of your
penis. As far I'm concerned that's about as uncomplicated as a medical issue -
there's no allusion to anything sexual. To wit: do you use your mouth during
sex? Would you shy away from answering how large a mouth guard you needed over
the phone in front of your daughter?

~~~
tom_
You must do you, and may the repercussions for that be no more serious than a
few downvotes. But as far as everybody else is concerned, this matter is, if
not actually outright sexual, at least sex-adjacent, and therefore not an
appropriate topic for discussion when one's children are around.

(Your children will probably be grateful for this.)

This might not be logical, but there you go. Something these things aren't. If
you feel strongly that this is so ridiculous that things should change, then
let nobody tell you that you are wrong, but I think you'll find that this is a
minority viewpoint, and you'll attract few fellow travelers for your quixotic
quest.

~~~
OscarDC
Maybe it's because we're from different cultures (I'm french) but that
situation sounds also ridiculous to me.

I've seen both my parents naked and sex was taboo, sure, but genitals in
itself (like talking about the size of ones penis for an health issue) were
not that much. That situation was not sexual at all and I'm sure your children
wouldn't really care (or maybe it's the fact that it was less sacralized in my
family). I do not feel traumatized by that and even feel a little insulted by
the: > (Your children will probably be grateful for this.)

I'm not saying that one situation is superior to the other one, but I
perfectly understand the point of the person you're answering to and feel all
those downvotes are a little unfair for a real (and in my pov, valid) opinion.

------
karmakaze
This is a must read thread, full of so many fun facts: e.g.

> Fun fact: Gravity creates most of the sense of urgency for peeing, so in
> microgravity, astronauts can't always tell when they need to go.

> It's such a complicated process that they pee on a schedule.

~~~
bonniemuffin
I currently have the inverse problem and solve it in exactly the same way: I'm
pregnant and I _always_ feel like I have to pee, even if I just went five
seconds ago. I can't tell the difference between the feeling of a full bladder
and the feeling of the baby pushing on my bladder.

I deal with it by peeing every hour, so that if it's only been 20 minutes, I
can feel pretty confident that the feeling isn't real and I should try to
ignore it. I have a lot of sympathy for the astronauts' pee problems these
days.

------
guytv
One of the best reads in a long time.

~~~
PunchTornado
I love reading long stories in a twitter format /s

that's why twitter came to be. 160 characters in 30 blocks

~~~
geofft
For these types of stories, I find it much more readable than a giant wall of
text - the structure of the medium forces you into better storytelling. (Not
everything is this type of story, though! I would hate reading a research
paper in this format, where each two-sentence block was intended to be
interesting enough to be retweeted on its own.)

This isn't unusual in human storytelling. Other forms with a history of
constraint causing a better result than an unconstrained pile of text include
poetry, songs, and presentation slides.

~~~
jakobegger
Twitter threads feel more focussed (than long form content) to me. People skip
fluff and focus on the important parts.

------
petee
My favorite part -- _" Peeing or pooping in space is now a lengthy process,
involving a fan, a targeting system, and a fair amount of prayer."_

------
canada_dry
More fun facts: www.popsci.com/brief-history-pooping-in-space/

------
tartrate

        Let's talk about peeing in space.
        
        Several people, in response to my NY Times essay, have said that women
        couldn't go into space because we lacked the technology for them to
        pee in space.
        
        When the Mercury program was proposed, doctors were worried that
        people would not be able to urinate or even swallow without the aid of
        gravity.
        
        And yet, they still made plans to send a man into space.
        
        Up.
        
        Hello space!
        
        Back down.
        
        They made no plans for peeing.
        
        He asked Mission Control for permission to go in his suit. After
        consultation with flight surgeons & suit technicians, they gave him
        permission to do so.
        
        So he wet himself & still went into space.
        
        It worked great in testing, but when the actual astronauts used it,
        the sheath kept blowing off and leaving them with pee in their suits.
        
        Was this about extended time in the spacesuit?
        
        They did not.
        
        Subsequently, the astronauts called the sheaths were called
        "Extra-large," "Immense," and "Unbelievable."
        
        That worked well for Gemini and Mercury. And by well, I mean there was
        still urine in the capsule and it stank of feces.
        
        Apollo needed a different solution.
        
        If you timed it right.
        
        Open it too early and the vacuum of space reached through the valve to
        grab your manhood.
        
        Apparently, the venting of pee into space is very pretty. It catches
        the sunlight and sparkles.
        
        Buzz Aldrin was the second man on the moon, but the first to pee
        there.
        
        After the accident, they couldn't use the regular vent, because it
        needed to be heated to keep the pee from freezing.
        
        It wasn't meant to be a permanent ban, but the crew didn't understand
        that. So they were stashing pee in every bag or container possible.
        
        He got a UTI and then a kidney infection.
        
        To launch and for a spacewalk, they developed the MAG
        
        Maximum Absorbency Garment.
        
        It's a diaper.
        
        They also developed a zero-G toilet so that astronauts no longer had
        to tape a bag to their ass.
        
        Fun pooping in space fact: Without gravity, the poop doesn't break off
        as it exits your body. You have to reach back and help with special
        gloves.
        
        Sometimes though, the toilet breaks down. At that point, they return
        to using "relief bags" taped to their ass and "manual urine
        containment."
        
        Fun fact: Due to chemicals, it is bright purple and acidic.
        
        Fun fact: Poop regularly escapes, which is why you never eat a milk
        dud found floating in the ISS.
        
        We didn't have the technology for men to pee in space when they
        started either.
        
        And some days, the best solution is still a diaper or a bag taped to
        the ass

~~~
geofft
Not only is this harder to read, and not only are you losing semantic
information (line breaks within a tweet are different from tweet breaks),
you're literally missing content, e.g., after "They did not."

~~~
tedunangst
It does, however, say something other than "Something went wrong."

------
mcnichol
Reading that "article" on twitter was amazingly not miserable but
seriously...is it a thing to write articles in twitter feeds

------
tracer4201
I don’t understand. This is good information, but why do I have to read this
on a Twitter feed? Why not an article or proper blog?

~~~
ekc
Aren't you the one who's being pretentious by complaining about how you have
to read it on a microblogging site?

~~~
mcnichol
Reading an article in the form of a twitter storm is not something I'd blame
someone complaining about.

She paced it well and really made it work and who knows, that may have been
the perfect place.

I have to believe there is some consensus on a twitter stream exceeding a
certain length being better off as a blog and this would qualify in those
numbers

~~~
pdpi
Trading your audience for a better medium is a hard bargain to accept.

~~~
mcnichol
That's the conversation right? Is this a better medium, are blogs just not as
effective.

To advocate for this medium, I definitely care little for the amount of
advertising done in blogs. Everything looks like a 1990s Warez site

------
antisthenes
Great read, but I couldn't help but think about how Twitter is the worst
possible format for this, compared to literally anything else.

A blog post. A news article. Even a video.

~~~
gatherhunterer
I was confused as to why this was a link to Twitter as opposed to a direct
link. The over-dependence on platforms like Twitter has reached the point of
parody.

------
benj111
"special gloves"

Is this one of those examples where Nasa spends $50m developing special
acronymed gloves, and the Russians went to the chemist and bought some bog
standard rubber gloves?

~~~
dbt00
You mean like the space pen vs pencil thing, where Fisher spent his own money
to design and make it and sold it to both the Americans and Russians because
pencils are a huge fire hazard in zero G?

~~~
rednixion
My grandmother's email had better poise.

