國際空間站廁所罷工

It's bad enough when the toilet gets clogged at home; it could be a lot more serious in space, especially with visitors on the way.

NASA said Wednesday that the liquid waste handling function of the toilet at the International Space Station (ISS) had malfunctioned the day before and that the three astronauts aboard had to use the toilet at the Soyuz capsule moored at the station.

While one of the crew was using the Russian-made toilet last week, the toilet motor fan stopped working after “it made a loud noise”, according to NASA. Since then, the liquid waste gathering part of the toilet has been working on-and-off.

Fortunately, the solid waste collecting part is functioning normally.

Eventually the two Russians and one American at the orbiting station were able to fix up a "urine bypass" on the ISS toilet, located on the Zvezda module, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.

NASA spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier told reporters that the space shuttle Discovery, scheduled to arrive at the ISS Monday with seven astronauts aboard, would be carrying toilet parts to help repair the station's prickly plumbing.

"It's not really an emergency, they have many options available if they need," Cloutier said from the Johnson Space Center in Texas.

"There is another toilet ready to fly in the fall, in order to have two toilets on board for when they'll have the expanded crew of six" at the ISS, she said.

家裏的馬桶堵了就夠鬧心的了，如果太空上的廁所壞了那會更糟糕，尤其在還要來客人的時候。

美國宇航局於本週三稱，國際空間站的液體排污裝置於前一天罷工，站內的三名宇航員只能暫時用固定在站上的Soyuz太空船（返回）艙內的廁所應急。

據介紹，上週一名宇航員上廁所時，“馬桶突然發出一聲很大的聲響”，廁所的風扇就不轉了。之後，馬桶的液體排污裝置就老出故障。

幸好固體排污部分還能正常運作。

據美國宇航局介紹，最後空間站上的兩名俄羅斯宇航員和一名美國宇航員在位於“星辰服務艙”內的馬桶上安裝了一個尿液收集器。

美國宇航局的女發言人妮可•克勞蒂爾在接受記者採訪時說，將於下週一抵達國際空間站的“發現號”航天飛機將送去修理馬桶所需要的零件。此次“發現號”將搭載七名宇航員飛赴太空。

克勞蒂爾在位於得克薩斯州的約翰遜航天中心說：“這還算不得緊急情況，如果需要的話他們有很多可供選擇的應急方法。”

她說：“今年秋天還要向空間站送一個廁所，以後空間站有了六名宇航員，就可以用兩個廁所了。”