this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2025
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[–] mkwt@lemmy.world 139 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Facts about this:

  1. Bags, with contents, were left on board the lower descent stages of the lunar modules. They remain on the moon to this day.

  2. There was at least one incident on Apollo 10 where feces escaped and was floating around the cabin.

Part of the radio transcript:

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Apollo 11 made the first actual moon landing, so if this transcript is from Apollo 10 the bags of shit are currently circling the sun in the lunar module, which was jettisoned on the way back to Earth. According to Google it's in a heliocentric orbit, "drifting aimlessly around the solar system."

Even more details: the abbreviations CMP, LMP and CDR in the transcript mean Command Module Pilot (John Young), Lunar Module Pilot (Gene Cernan), and Commander (Tom Stafford), all now deceased. Young and Cernan each returned to walk on the moon in Apollo 16 and 17.

[–] mkwt@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I am well aware that Apollo 10 did not deliver shitbags to the moon.

But 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 did, if they defecated at all on the moon, leave it behind per checklist. There are 96 inventoried bags on the moon, but it is not recorded which, if any, are filled with what. It would have been easier to avoid on the earlier missions, which spent less time on the surface.

At least one astronaut claims he avoided a bowel movement for the entire mission duration.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Slashdown must have been rough with a big one in the chamber. I'd be afraid of an unplanned jettison on impact.