11-Day Program Encourages Workers To Give All They Can

When ya gotta go, ya gotta go... which is why NASA is reportedly looking for a few good men and women to make an important donation to its Constellation space program: urine.

And a lot of it.

According to an internal NASA memorandum posted on NASAwatch.com -- and picked up with some measurable glee by the Associated Press -- Orion capsule subcontractor Hamilton Sundstrand has asked workers at the Johnson Space Center to donate nearly eight gallons of urine a day, seven days a week, to test the spacecraft's waste extraction system.

"Urine is a mess because urine is full of solids," said John Lewis, who's in charge of life support systems for Orion.

Those solids, and the acidic properties of urea, could wreak havoc on the capsule's venting systems if the liquid waste isn't properly treated, and disposed of... so the subcontractor wants to test its proposed system in real-time.

This isn't the first time NASA's asked its employees to give at the office; in fact, the agency has done so throughout its history... because, as Lewis puts it, "you can't make fake urine."

Job #1 at JSC will run from July 21 to July 31. Among the guidelines spelled out in the memo is the rule that donors should only add urine to the "collection" if it's been collected within an hour. And while workers are encouraged to give as much as they can to the program, NASA cautioned participants not to over-hydrate, as excess water dilutes the sample.

"Our test is meant to be as flight-like as possible," the memo states. "This means that unlike in the doctor's office, you do not need to worry about starting collection midstream. Our testing will be more accurate if you collect as much of the entire urination as possible including the beginning."

Incidentally, NASA would have preferred to keep the lid on this particular story. Spokesman Leo Makowski pointedly noted the memo was NOT meant to go public.

Then again, of all the news services to have leaked this particular story... we'd take AP, too.

FMI: www.nasa.gov