Astronauts on the International Space Station will soon have a new innovative toilet, according to Space.
The new system, called the global waste management system, is supposed to be the basis for testing latrines designed for use in zero-gravity environments, such as long space trips that will go to Mars, according to the "Observatory of the Future", of the "Dubai Future Foundation."
According to NASA, the new advanced toilet will become a unified model in space stations, as it is designed to ultimately reduce costs and improve storage efficiency by developing smaller fecal boxes.
A new and improved toilet will be sent to the International Space Station early this fall, but a spacecraft has not yet been chosen to accomplish this mission, NASA spokesperson told Space.com.
One of the most important goals of the new toilet is to avoid leaving human waste on distant planets and risk contaminating them. During the Apollo 11 flight, American astronauts were forced to leave 96 bags of human feces on the moon. And there is still debate among some scientists about the need to return to the moon to get rid of them properly.
As long-distance travel in space results in large quantities of waste, according to NASA estimates, astronauts will have to deal with about 272 kilograms of solid waste during a trip to Mars.
The history of the toilet on the International Space Station dates back to the nineties of the last century, and astronauts have long experienced difficulty in using it, especially women. In February 2019, Russian media reported that a toilet on the International Space Station had exploded, causing large amounts of sewage to leak, forcing astronauts to dry themselves.