The employees at the Johnson Space Center in Huston will be asked to bring a small contribution to the future of space explorations – a urine sample. The company that is manufacturing Orion, a new space capsule that will be used in future manned missions on the surface of the Moon, said that it needs the samples to test the toilet it plans to design for the capsule.

Officials at Hamilton Sundstrand, the company which needs the urine samples, said that even though the request might sound a little bit awkward, the company really needs the samples, as urine is one thing that cannot be artificially manufactured.

Urine is a big problem for people that design toilets that are used in places with little or no gravity at all. Even though urine seems to be nothing more than a fluid, it actually contains a lot of tiny solid particles. These particles can clog the tubing system of the toilet, which leads to a lot of discomfort and little to do about it for the crew of the missions, which are supposed to run for as much as six month each.

The amount of urine that Hamilton Sundstrand need is 30 liters a day. The campaign for collecting the samples will run from July 21 to July 31 at the headquarters of the Johnson Space Center. By the time this period of time ends, the company hopes to collect at least 300 liters of wee, an amount it hopes to be sufficient for the upcoming tests.