# Is there astronaut poop on the moon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 27, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504 "2011-07-27T16:52:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/1 "2011-07-27T16:52:14Z")
There has to be, right? I’m sure they didn’t store it all up for the return voyage. In fact, in Apollo 13, when Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) flushes his urine out into space, it follows along beside the craft thanks to Newton’s first law of motion. I suspect that other subsequent flushes of bodily functions did the same, until moon orbit whereby said effluent would be grabbed by the moon’s gravity and deposited on the surface. When parked on the moon they probably just flushed the LEM loo onto the ground, no? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/2 "2011-07-27T17:20:25Z")
I’m sure the scientists would have had a shit fit if the astronauts dumped earth bacteria and other contaminants on the moon’s surface. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/3 "2011-07-27T17:25:36Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I’m sure the scientists would have had a shit fit if the astronauts dumped earth bacteria and other contaminants on the moon’s surface. Well, that’s what I’ve thought FOREVER. But the hitchhiking sewage made me think otherwise. Once they went into orbit, that stuff would get captured by the moon and end up on the surface. Unless that part of the movie was factually incorrect. And if the hitchhiking stuff ended up on the moon, then there’s no reason not to dump the rest of it. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/4 "2011-07-27T17:48:44Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I’m sure the scientists would have had a shit fit if the astronauts dumped earth bacteria and other contaminants on the moon’s surface. Where they that concerned about it back then? ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/5 "2011-07-27T17:49:10Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > In fact, in Apollo 13, when Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) flushes his urine out into space, it follows along beside the craft thanks to Newton’s first law of motion. I suspect that other subsequent flushes of bodily functions did the same, until moon orbit whereby said effluent would be grabbed by the moon’s gravity and deposited on the surface. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but in general, if you’re coming from a higher altitude and want to end up in orbit around an object (say, the Moon), the most efficient way to do it is to aim yourself at a point some altitude above the surface of the Moon. You then fire your retro-rockets to slow yourself down by the right amount when you’re at your lowest altitude, and you end up in orbit at that altitude. If you don’t fire your retro-rockets, you’ll whip around the Moon and sail back out to higher altitudes; what you won’t do (unless you’re over-eager with firing your retro-rockets) is crash into the surface. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that this is the trajectory that any waste ejected during the Earth-Moon transit would have taken, since frozen urine doesn’t have retro-rockets to fire. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/6 "2011-07-27T17:49:15Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Where they that concerned about it back then? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/7 "2011-07-27T17:51:28Z")
Urine and feces were handled differently on the Apollo missions. [http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2006-01/1138467020.As.r.html](http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2006-01/1138467020.As.r.html) Feces were collected in bags (a process which the astronauts hated). It sounds to me like the filled bags may have been brought back to Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/8 "2011-07-27T18:29:20Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Feces were collected in bags (a process which the astronauts hated). It sounds to me like the filled bags may have been brought back to Earth. Then they set them on fire, left them on Russia’s porch, rang the doorbell, and ran like hell. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/9 "2011-07-27T18:33:43Z")
With the old model, “It had a 14 day capacity” (From the link above) What would they do if the mission was extended for emergency reasons? 😕 :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/10 "2011-07-27T20:44:36Z")
**kenobi 65** took poo, so that leaves me with pee. Let’s take Apollo 11 for our example because it’s probably the best documented online. The other Apollo missions may have better records, but they aren’t as easily available. They actually had orders not to dump urine from the time the Lunar Module separated to the time it rendezvoused with the Command Module, but things didn’t go according to plan. The plan was to jettison waste water just after lunar orbit had been established. 84 hours into the mission. Unfortunately the urine storage facility leaked and pee got into the Lunar Module. From the [official mission transcript, as captured by the onboard voice recorder](http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission_trans/AS11_CM.PDF). > [@Page 87 of the transcript](#): > > CDR Commander Nell A. Armstrong > CMP Command module pilot Michael Collins > LMP Lunar module pilot Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. > CDR I don’t know, but the command module’s got about > LMP Little fluorescent - circles? > CDR There’s one of them. > LMP There’s some in a lot of failures. > CMP The only thing is all the engineering that went into those damn things, too. There’s a lot of time and money down the pipe. > > … > > CMP Poor old LM is contaminated; it’s got urine particles all over it; and, the way the light’s shining here, they look yellow. You know, those little - I guess it probably is a little - solid now, the - everything else has boiled off and it’s left a little solid. > CDR …, huh? > LMP … solid urine particles are … > CDR I guess. > LMP Wait until the back contam - forward contamination people hear about that. > CDR Yes. > LMP No more urine dumps on the way to the moon. Put it all in a nice little bag Then they bagged everything while they were in the Lunar Module and took it with them back to the command module. The next reference to a dump of waste water in the transcript is nearly a day after lunar lift-off, just before leaving lunar orbit, and again they’re having problems. > [@Page 222 in the Transcript](#): > > CDR This is not dumping. > CMP I figured that. > CDR Did you try the other line? > CMP Well - no, I haven’t tried a whole number of alternatives. In fact, number 1 is not dumping. My guess would be that it’s something to do with this connection in the UCD or something like that. When you try to dump your … regular urine bag, > … It’s so goddam smelly, I hate to grab it and dick around with it, but I guess I got to. They ended up taking it home with them, and finding a creative way to re-arrange stuff to make room for the bag. > [@Page 225 of the transcript](#): > > CDR … give me a waste bag … > CMP Yes, Just … a lot … there. > CMP It was back here. > LMP Yes. > CMP Who took the roll of tape? > CDR Isn’t it in its place? Closet? > CMP No, no, it’s not in there. It doesn’t have that closet anymore. The last I saw it, it was up on the MDC. I gave it - I handed it to one of you guys to - > LMP Yes, I stuck it someplace. > CMP Let’s invent a new home for it because that old home is full of that smelly old urine bag. So did some of the stuff they dumped in orbit make it to the surface? Almost certainly, but even without that we know waste is on the moon. The breakdown of the equipment makes it almost certain that when sections of the lunar lander were left on the surface that some of those lovely urine globules they were talking about, and possibly other waste, given the terrible procedure required to extract poop it’s almost certain some escaped the bags, which contaminated the LM are still there. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/11 "2011-07-27T20:58:21Z")
[QUOTE=Page 87 of the transcript] CDR Commander Nell A. Armstrong [/quote] I’ve been suffering from a significant misunderstanding about things for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/12 "2011-07-27T21:16:42Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I’ve been suffering from a significant misunderstanding about things for a long time. Well, “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” is on it’s way out. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/13 "2011-07-27T21:18:39Z")
That’s funny. Apparently Adobe tries to do OCR on the docs it scanned for NASA and some of the translations don’t work so well. I did a lot of cleanup of their character recognition. Here’s what the first section would have looked like as a straight copy-paste > [@](#): > > 03 07 58 59 CDR I don’t know, but the cn-,nd HM\_l\_ets got about > eec > 03 07 59 01 I\_P Little fluorescent - circles? > 03 07 59 0m CDR There’s one of them. > 03 07 59 07 \_ There’s some in a lot of failures. > 03 07 59 l0 CMP The only thing is all the engineering that went > into those damn things, too. There’s a lot of > time and money do\_n the pipe. > 03 07 59 15 \_ I mean, this big monstrosity out here, it fails - > 03 07 59 17 CDR Hey, we’re coming up - You can see the horizon - > 03 07 59 38 CMP See if that looks pretty goo\_ - through the sextant > and see if that doesn’t come up. > 03 07 59 47 CMP Zap. > 03 07 59 56 I\_P Sure has been … back here. > 03 08 00 05 CMP Poor old LM is eontaminatecl; it’s got urine > particles A]I over it; and, the wa\_ the light’s > shining here, they look yellow. You know, those > little - I guess it probably is a little - solid > now, the - everything else has boiled off and it’s > left a little solid. > 03 08 00 23 CDR …, huh? > 03 08 O0 26 \_ … solid urine particles are … > 03 08 00 29 CDR I guess. > 03 08 00 3\_ \_ _Wait unti \_ cboalck nt_ -\_rward contamination > people hear\_out that. > 03 08 00 38 CDR Yes. > 03 08 00 hl LMP No more urine dumps on the way to the moon. Put > it all in a nice little bag The poor person who had to transcribe this recording had it worse than me though. It looks like a bunch of stuff where they talk about bodily functions was excised or simply not transcribed. I’m sure a lot of it was simply unintelligible as well. The legend for the document had categories for “unknown crewmember” and “multiple speakers” where a voice may be audible but not identifiable and times when everyone was talking over each other. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/14 "2011-07-27T21:34:21Z")
In Andrew Chaikin’s wonderful book [A Man on the Moon - The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts](http://www.amazon.com/Man-Moon-Andrew-Chaikin/dp/0140272011), he mentioned that after their historic moonwalk, Aldrin and Armstrong depressurized the LM one more time so they could throw out their backpacks and another bag of gear that was no longer needed. He didn’t go into detail about what exactly that bag contained, and I can’t find mention of this in the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. Chaikin didn’t say it was trash, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn they threw out used food containers. Not poop, but still organic material. On Skylab the astronauts freeze dried and brought back just about everything that came out of their bodies in order to study long term space flight on human physiology. The third crew even got in trouble when they tried to cover up the fact that one of them had vomited. I don’t know if the Apollo crews brought back their solid waste for similar reasons. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/15 "2011-07-27T22:09:23Z")
> [@Jake](#): > > With the old model, “It had a 14 day capacity” (From the link above) > What would they do if the mission was extended for emergency reasons? 😕 :eek: Suffocate. It seems the early shuttle missions only had up to 10 days’ supply of oxygen. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/16 "2011-07-28T18:26:18Z")
So if faeces was left on the moon; it could (bearing in mind that there are extremophile bacterias on Earth) , eventually evolve into weird mutant monsters; that would develop their own incredibly advanced, but alien civilisation, that would in turn invade our planet and turn us all into their sexual playthings ? Or am I worrying too much ? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/17 "2011-07-28T19:34:14Z")
You’re worrying too much. Obviously, they’d only turn our _women_ into sexual playthings. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/18 "2011-07-28T20:38:32Z")
What about just on the bottom of their boots and whatnot. Wouldn’t there be microscopic bacteria that could possibily survive on the moon (and then of course evolve, fly to earth, and rape our women)? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/19 "2011-07-29T01:35:29Z")
OK, so feces may have been stored. But again, what about the urine-dump that hitchhiked along beside the service module. It would have to end up on the moon post-orbit, right? ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504/20 "2011-07-29T07:20:07Z")
[From a thread a while back.](http://history.nasa.gov/SP-368/s6ch2.htm) Somewhere in there I think it mentions that the Moon was to be kept free of human contamination. The LM had a urine collection tank in its descent stage that got left on the Moon, but nothing actually got ‘dumped’ on the surface. Personally I think that was kind of stupid. The Moon was a wasteland. A rock. You couldn’t contaminate it if you tried. The astronauts probably thought so too. They hated the whole ‘Lunar Receiving Lab’ isolation trailer they had to stay in for two weeks after they got back. So much so that NASA eventually stopped using it. Not a lot of ‘Moon germs’ to worry about… 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-astronaut-poop-on-the-moon/590504.md?page=2)