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[mustang6172]

It's probably a little late to ask, but how do the toilets work on the space station?

If a space habitat is 60% plumbing there must be something interesting happening.

[Is it cold in here?]

The air handling system is plumbing too. Then, consider an onboard sewage treatment plant. The plumbing adds up fast.

[DSL]

Not to mention water supply, critical gases, heat-exchange (heating and cooling), possibly fuel-transfer systems to service visiting spacecraft ... it's all pipes and ducts of one sort or another.

[Mister D Nomms]

I imagine the poop goes in, then a hatch is closed and the power of space sucks it out and flings it at the earth, where it's reduced to burnt poop molecules

[gopher]

I imagine the poop goes in, then a hatch is closed and the power of space sucks it out and flings it at the earth, where it's reduced to burnt poop molecules

Nah. What do you think they make space ham out of? Recycling.

[Is it cold in here?]

We don't know whether transportation to orbit is cheap enough that you could just throw water overboard and send up replacements.

[Omega Entity]

I imagine the poop goes in, then a hatch is closed and the power of space sucks it out and flings it at the earth, where it's reduced to burnt poop molecules

Nah. What do you think they make space ham out of? Recycling.

This reminds me of this article: http://www.naturalnews.com/032715_turd_steaks_human_waste.html

[Kugai]

Anybody seen those instructions for the Z-G Toilet in 2001?

[DSL]

Anybody seen those instructions for the Z-G Toilet in 2001?

Here's a thought: In real-world 2001, those instructions would be in pictograms.

[GerPronouncedGrr]

I'm trying to envision the QC universe as though it was the real universe; what else might exist in a place where AI has taken such leaps and bounds? I'm not going to go so far as to call for Anthro Toilets^TM, but even today we have magastructures being designed and built that are self-sustaining, and completely off-grid within 4 years (on paper) of startup. I guess what I'm saying is that I don't find the idea that a hyper-advanced space station independently funded and populated by the best and brightest, dedicated to science, run by the most advanced AI ever created, could be completely self-sustaining to be far-fetched at all. In my mind, the only thing these people get delivered to the station are knicknacks, quality of life type stuffs, and specialized research consumables and equipment.

TL;DR: They recycle their poop.

[Redball]

Through all of the discussion about Station and Spaceship, I've wondered about fusion power, even (snerk!) cold fusion, in QCverse. Discussion over the weeks touched on why this can't work or that must work this way. AIs, Station and a spaceship with plenty of legroom suggest power may be cheap enough to burn. In the 1950s, harnessing fusion power was considered only 30-40 years away. It's still 30-40 years away.

[pwhodges]

In the 1950s, harnessing fusion power was considered only 30-40 years away. It's still 30-40 years away.

My first father-in-law ran the experimental team on the world's first major fusion device, ZETA*, at Harwell.  In the 50s, when it was started up, he was pictured in The Daily Mail (which was a considerably more respectable organ than it is now) illustrating an article under the headline "Free Power in Ten Years".

* I am bemused by the proportion of the Wikipedia article that is concerned with the politics of the US attempt to catch up with the research in Britain!

It's curious that this post is in a thread entitled "Toilets"!

[Carl-E]

Well, it's the best use of waste material I can think of.  Poop powered fusion! 

[Kugai]

Yes, but what average house needs 1.21 Gigawatts?

[akronnick]

One equipped with a flux capacitor, duh.

[DSL]

Yes, but what average house needs 1.21 Gigawatts?

Why, a thpathe houth, of courth!

[Akima]

My first father-in-law ran the experimental team on the world's first major fusion device, ZETA*, at Harwell.

I think Ivy Mike, regrettably, has that honour. The problem with nuclear fusion is not generating power, it is using it for something other than destruction.

[Is it cold in here?]

Some kind of compact benign nuclear power would explain why EC-101 didn't need a huge tank for fuel and oxidizer.

[cesariojpn]

Well, it's the best use of waste material I can think of.  Poop powered fusion! 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogas

[Skewbrow]

Not one to miss a chance to teach a bit of math: The hairy ball theorem explains (or is at least one of the explanations) why all the fusion reactors seek to keep the plasma in a donut shaped region. A ball shaped blob of plasma might feel more natural, but if you attempt to control it with a magnetic field, the plasma would escape through the cowlicks (see the image), touch the walls of the reaction chamber, and ruin the process.

I'm not up to speed with the fusion research. The latest breakthrough that I remember reading about was when they announced that (for a fraction of a second) the reactor was generating more power than what was put in. This may have been a decade ago or something??

[pwhodges]

My first father-in-law ran the experimental team on the world's first major fusion device, ZETA*, at Harwell.

I think Ivy Mike, regrettably, has that honour. The problem with nuclear fusion is not generating power, it is using it for something other than destruction.

Fair enough; I should have written "controlled fusion device".  But his boss, and the brother of one of my later bosses, was Keith Roberts, one of the team that designed Britain's first H-bomb; it was a pretty tight-knit world.

[Kugai]

Yes, but what average house needs 1.21 Gigawatts?

Why, a thpathe houth, of courth!

Thufferwing thukkatath

[cvcharger]

Yes, but what average house needs 1.21 Gigawatts?

One owned by an average mad scientist of course.  How else do you think Dexter kept his laboratory running?

[Mr_Rose]

Yes, but what average house needs 1.21 Gigawatts?

One owned by an average mad scientist of course.  How else do you think Dexter kept his laboratory running?

Canonically?
His parents just up and paid the $40,000 bill every month.
Yes that makes even less sense, but what part of that show makes any at all?

(equally canonically, his incipient genius was recognised at birth by the attending OB-GYN who fitted him with his first pair of glasses as a mark of his trade. Which kinda implies that his parents know everything and are just acting oblivious while collecting on a couple thousand patents and/or some sweet DoD funding)

[jwhouk]

Well, it's the best use of waste material I can think of.  Poop powered fusion! 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogas

Or Biomass.

[cvcharger]

Yes, but what average house needs 1.21 Gigawatts?

One owned by an average mad scientist of course.  How else do you think Dexter kept his laboratory running?

Canonically?
His parents just up and paid the $40,000 bill every month.
Yes that makes even less sense, but what part of that show makes any at all?

(equally canonically, his incipient genius was recognised at birth by the attending OB-GYN who fitted him with his first pair of glasses as a mark of his trade. Which kinda implies that his parents know everything and are just acting oblivious while collecting on a couple thousand patents and/or some sweet DoD funding)

Yes, the $40,000 electrician fee was pretty high even by their standards.  However, I'm sure he's been charging everything to his NASA account, hence the astronaut repo guys.  Though, I don't think his parents were 'acting' oblivious.  He used a mind eraser on several accounts.  But yeah, he probably also collects each time he saves the world as well.