National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA.
Adv Physiol Educ. 2013 Jun;37(2):123-8. doi: 10.1152/advan.00175.2012.
On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American to fly in space. Although National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had discounted the need for him to urinate, Shepard did, in his spacesuit, short circuiting his electronic biosensors. With the development of the pressure suit needed for high-altitude and space flight during the 1950s, technicians had developed the means for urine collection. However, cultural mores, combined with a lack of interagency communication, and the technical difficulties of spaceflight made human waste collection a difficult task. Despite the difficulties, technicians at NASA created a successful urine collection device that John Glenn wore on the first Mercury orbital flight on February 20, 1962. With minor modifications, male astronauts used this system to collect urine until the Space Shuttle program. John Glenn's urine collection device is at the National Air and Space Museum and has been on view to the public since 1976.
1961 年 5 月 5 日，宇航员艾伦·谢泼德成为第一位进入太空的美国人。尽管美国国家航空航天局（NASA）认为他不需要排尿，但谢泼德还是在太空服中排尿，导致电子生物传感器短路。随着 20 世纪 50 年代高空和太空飞行所需的压力服的发展，技术人员已经开发出了尿液收集的方法。然而，文化习俗、机构间沟通不畅以及太空飞行的技术困难，使得收集人类排泄物成为一项艰巨的任务。尽管存在困难，NASA 的技术人员还是成功地为约翰·格伦创造了一种尿液收集装置，他在 1962 年 2 月 20 日的第一次水星轨道飞行中佩戴了这种装置。经过轻微修改，男性宇航员使用该系统收集尿液，直到航天飞机计划。约翰·格伦的尿液收集装置在国家航空航天博物馆展出，自 1976 年以来一直向公众开放。
