The other day we had some issues with the toilet in the U.S. Segment.
Late in day I went to use it. When I turned it on (it has pumps and fans that need to run) it sounded a little "off." All of a sudden a circuit breaker popped and everything shut down except for one fan that kept running. That was very strange and certainly not good. Naturally, all of this happened before I was able to make use of the toilet.
Eventually we figured out how to turn that fan off and we let the ground know about the problem. They began thinking about what troubleshooting steps and/or repair work could be done. Until they came up with a plan we had to go to the Russian Segment and use the toilet there. It is a good thing that we have two toilets on board and it is a good thing that I paid attention in my Russian Segment training classes.
The next day we did not hear much from the ground regarding our toilet. Though, towards the end of our day, they had us do some troubleshooting. Unfortunately, there were no conclusive results and we were still without our toilet on the U.S. side.
Day three ended up being a big toilet operations day for me and Wheels. I was scheduled to do a replacement of some of the tubing and hoses that are deep in its bowels, so to speak. I was not entirely sure why I was doing this as it was not originally on my schedule for the day and it did not seem to me to be related to the problems we had earlier. But I am sure the ground had their reasons. At any rate, this ended up being one of those tasks that took quite a bit longer than the ground had scheduled. Plus it did not go as planned.
It took longer because the connectors for these tubes and hoses were extremely difficult to get off. It never ceases to amaze me how parts can seem like they have spontaneously welded themselves together. In addition, the screwdriver that I had available to use for part of the process did not fit into the hole where the screws were that I needed to access. That was a bit frustrating.
Eventually I got all the connections undone and it was at that point that I noticed that one of the hoses was completely blocked with some sort of sludge (bleah!). Needless to say, that was a surprise to me and a surprise to the folks on the ground. Especially since that hose was not being used for anything at the moment. It was there for a future capability of some sort. No one had any idea what the sludge was or where it came from. But, the discovery certainly put a new spin on the day. I had to do extra work to inspect and photo-document a variety of things so the ground could assess this latest twist in the toilet saga. I spent so much time with the toilet that the ground had to defer some of my tasks that were scheduled later in the day.
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While the ground was contemplating what they thought needed to be done next, I grabbed a quick, late lunch. Then it was back to the toilet to try a couple more things that the ground decided they needed done. It was about this time that I was scheduled for my daily exercise. So, Wheels took over working on the toilet and I went off to lift weights and ride on the bike. He ended up changing out more parts and working through dinner.
I was extremely disappointed that for all our efforts on this day, the toilet still did not work. Late in the evening after Wheels had buttoned everything up, the ground had us fire it up to see if it was fixed. With great anticipation we three Americans gathered around for the grand test. After getting all the switches in the proper configuration, we turned it on and nothing happened. No sounds. No pumps pumping No fans blowing. To make matters even worse, as we were staring at it, perhaps trying to will the toilet to work, the circuit breaker popped again. So, back to the drawing board for the ground and continuing to use the toilet in the Russian Segment for us.
After lunch on day four I began the latest round of troubleshooting. I executed a plan that the ground put together and based on the signatures I received they were able to determine exactly which piece of hardware had the problem. During our night they had narrowed it down to two different pieces of hardware that might have failed. They needed us to flip various switches in a particular order to make the final determination. Once they saw what they needed, they were able to quickly put together a plan for us to replace a malfunctioning pump. The sludge was still a mystery, though.
According to our cargo tracking software, we had a spare pump on board. However, it was listed as "lost," if you can believe that. Unfortunately, it happens. A shuttle comes; lots cargo gets stashed all over the place in a hurry; things get lost. You will eventually run across them, but you just never know when. Since our toilet design is actually based off of the Russian toilet and has common parts with it, the Russians had a spare pump that they let us use. You have to really appreciate the international cooperation in things such as this. In reality, it is not a problem for us to use the Russian toilet (or, for them to use ours). However it is more convenient for all involved if you have only three people sharing a toilet rather than six.
Wheels and I spent the better part of our late afternoon and dinner time replacing the pump. Once again, this was no easy task. The space in which we had to work was extremely cramped and the connectors that we had to disconnect to get the broken pump out were incredibly stubborn. But, we persevered and our efforts paid off. There was much rejoicing when we turned it on and the all fans and pumps worked as they were supposed to.
It is always a good day in space when your toilet works.
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