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I have looked around a bit, Wikipedia has an article on space toilets and one on toilet paper, but the two don't seem to be used together. According to one reference, annual consumption of toilet tissue in North America is 23.0 kg per capita. Recycling air and fluids, even solids in a farm, are all pretty well accepted concepts, but what about toilet paper?

How do you meet this essential need in space? How could you meet it on a long journey or colonization?

called2voyage
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James Jenkins
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    You mean if they scrunch or fold? I think they rinse, suck and blow dry, but this thread might be fun. I'm not even sure I dare describe the process I had in mind. :) – TildalWave Jul 30 '13 at 11:03
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    To quote Madagascar "Who wipes!" –  Jul 30 '13 at 11:23
  • Annual consumption per capita. BTW, that's really a lot. – gerrit Jul 30 '13 at 13:16
  • Related: http://suzymchale.com/ruspace/hygiene.html – Deer Hunter Jul 30 '13 at 13:40
  • Service Module procedures: http://www.spaceref.com/iss/ops/sm.life.support.book1.pdf Specifically, Part 4.1 - toilet wipes are used to wipe not only the person but the receptacle and the seat. – Deer Hunter Jul 30 '13 at 13:47
  • For long journeys: you have to carry the consumables all the way from home. Colonization is another problem altogether. – Deer Hunter Jul 30 '13 at 13:55
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    Sunita Williams covers this and a lot more in her ISS tour video. I highly recommend watching the entire clip. – coleopterist Jul 30 '13 at 14:33
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    Huge segments of the world don't use TP on Earth. If you looked for annual TP consumption in Asia or Africa, you might get a surprise. So, ignoring the first half of your title (did you mean "without recycling paper"?), and going for your last question ("..could.. on a long journey"), I give you: Water! (AKA, any one of a wide variety of bidet-like options) – hunter2 Jul 31 '13 at 07:00
  • @hunter2: I was thinking of putting in an answer along those lines and then saw your comment. You should make that an answer. Toilet paper is completely unnecessary. Bidets are better. They even use less water overall, when you take into account the water required to make the toilet paper, as well as fewer flushes. – Mark Adler Jan 13 '14 at 20:51
  • You'd think they'd use bidets, but I guess it creates a greater quantity of 'contaminated' waste. Would only be beneficial with a good way to process the liquid waste back into food and water. If the waste is treated as something to dispose of, TP and wetwipes are far more economical. – Blake Walsh Feb 24 '15 at 10:11
  • If there is a need to grow food in space for long duration missions, and human waste can be recycled into fertilizer, perhaps inedible components of "space crops" could be used as a source of fibers to manufacture space TP. Who says it has to be made of cellulose from trees? – Anthony X Sep 18 '16 at 19:31
  • @AnthonyX Not a bad idea. We just need someone to come up with a TP 3D printer that uses plant fibers. – called2voyage Sep 20 '16 at 14:33

1 Answers1

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Current Practice

Right now, toilet paper is used (as well as wet wipes). It is disposed of in air-tight bags, according to Smithsonian.com. From the reference provided by Deer Hunter, "toilet wipes are used to wipe not only the person but the receptacle and the seat." It also mentions that the air-tight bags are discarded in a trash container.

Future Missions

As far as future missions such as long journeys or colonizations, I can't find anything addressing toilet paper use, though it isn't hard to imagine the toilets of future spaceships going completely paperless.

The University of Arizona paper "Mars Settler: A Manned Mission to Explore Mars" (Sheehan, Seo, and Bilinski) discusses the recycling of toilet paper in future manned Mars missions, which implies that they forsee the use of toilet paper.

called2voyage
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