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Sounds like something could be learned here from space toilets, which rely on suction (not gravity). Check out NASA's $23 million new design: https://www.smit

Sounds like something could be learned here from space toilets, which rely on suction (not gravity). Check out NASA's $23 million new design: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/nasa-just-sent-new-23-million-space-toilet-international-space-station-180976037/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/nasa-just-sent... > "The new toilet is a compact cylinder standing about 28 inches tall and features the same type of fan system, as well as a funnel attached to a hose, as previous iterations. It also has a removable waste compactor for the astronauts to deposit their droppings in. Each time an astronaut poops, their business is sucked into a baggie. Once finished, the astronaut will seal the baggie up, and push the packaged poop down into the canister. They then install a new baggie and the process repeats until the canister is full. As the canister fills up, the bathroom stall may not always smell so fresh. The collection bin holds roughly 30 deposits. Once the bin is full, the poop is then discarded with the rest of the trash into outer space." The idea of bags of human poop (including trillions of microbiome bacteria) floating forever in deep space orbits is rather odd. This seems like an orbital debris hazard?

giraffe_lady 4y ago
Space stations aren't deep space it's like 200 miles away from where I'm sitting. Geostationary is something like 100 times that and even out there orbital decay is on the scale of like, a human lifetime or two. This general concept is definitely something for us to consider but this isn't a specific case we need to worry about, I think.
- Dylan16807 4y ago
  Orbital decay is indeed quite fast at space station levels, but geostationary decay takes roughly forever. (There are geosynchronous orbits that decay quickly, but only at certain inclinations.)
- vikingerik 4y ago
  Geostationary orbits are well beyond measurable atmospheric drag; the expected lifetime is on the order of millions of years. Geostationary satellites do have a limited oeprational lifespan, but it's not because of orbital decay, it's because they need propellant for stationkeeping to adjust for irregularities in the orbit, and that propellant is finite and eventually runs out.
vikingerik 4y ago
They don't float forever - any object orbiting at the altitude of the ISS will decay from atmospheric drag, generally on time scales of a few months to years. Human spaceflights at altitudes beyond significant atmospheric drag would need another solution, but we haven't done any of those since 1972.

giraffe_lady 4y ago

Space stations aren't deep space it's like 200 miles away from where I'm sitting. Geostationary is something like 100 times that and even out there orbital decay is on the scale of like, a human lifetime or two. This general concept is definitely something for us to consider but this isn't a specific case we need to worry about, I think.

Dylan16807 4y ago
Orbital decay is indeed quite fast at space station levels, but geostationary decay takes roughly forever. (There are geosynchronous orbits that decay quickly, but only at certain inclinations.)
vikingerik 4y ago
Geostationary orbits are well beyond measurable atmospheric drag; the expected lifetime is on the order of millions of years. Geostationary satellites do have a limited oeprational lifespan, but it's not because of orbital decay, it's because they need propellant for stationkeeping to adjust for irregularities in the orbit, and that propellant is finite and eventually runs out.

vikingerik 4y ago

They don't float forever - any object orbiting at the altitude of the ISS will decay from atmospheric drag, generally on time scales of a few months to years. Human spaceflights at altitudes beyond significant atmospheric drag would need another solution, but we haven't done any of those since 1972.