Vacc Suits

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Space toilets use fans to pull waste into a storage container which could sort of be modified for spacesuits. Short-term duration suits might just allow urine collection, which is easy enough to handle with existing pilot waste relief systems and a low-powered, demand-activated pump. Budget models might just use high quality adult diapers.

The external male catheter described there is what I generally assume powered armor/environmental suits/etc to use, albeit built into the suit (so probably no need for an adhesive to stick it to the skin; you probably want disposable ones for sanitary reasons, however, so something to secure it to the suit would be necessary). I think something similar would work for women, although adhesive to stick to the skin may be necessary there, but some other method of securely holding it in place should work.

For longer-term use, you'd need something for dealing with solid wastes*. This is normally portrayed as a tube going into the rectum; I wonder if an external system might work there as well? Possibly with a built-in flushing system/bidet? I suspect that's not as much of a concern here, where the suits are meant to be used for emergencies, and unless something goes terribly wrong (or you're unlucky enough that the disaster occurs while you're on the way to the restroom) you typically wouldn't need to use the facilities.

*I wonder if powered-armor soldiers might opt to switch to a liquid-only diet for a few days preceding a mission, and stick to liquid-only rations for the duration of a mission, to avoid needing to "go number two." I'm not sure if that would actually work, however.