Female Toilet Device

Female Toilet Device

Female attachment for the demonstration sample of the Russian space toilet of the type used on the Mir space station. It consists of a plastic cream funnel with a rubber edge and a hosepipe adaptor. The toilet has a flexible hose to attach a funnel. Each cosmonaut had a personal funnel, differently shaped for men and women. The zero-gravity toilet used airflow to carry waste away from the cosmonaut's body – like a vacuum cleaner.

Female astronauts reportedly find their liquid funnel system easier to use than their male counterparts. This is because the female funnels adhere to the body, causing a difference in air pressure that draws the waste down the tube. Male astronauts must hold their cone-like funnel slightly away from the body, so as not to get vacuumed in!

Between 1986 and 2001 Mir operated in low Earth orbit and hosted over 100 individuals. It served as a microgravity research laboratory where cosmonauts could live and work on long duration missions. When Mir was nearing the end of its operation, its solar panels had become 40 per cent less effective. This was largely due to damage caused by frozen urine, which had been vented into space, colliding with the panels at high speeds. Today the toilets on Mir’s successor, the International Space Station, store liquid waste and recycle it as drinking water.