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A Maximum Absorbency Garment (MAG) is a piece of clothing astronauts wear during liftoff, landing, spacewalks, and other extra-vehicular activities to absorb urine and feces. Usually, astronauts urinate into the MAG, and wait to defecate when they return to the spaceship. The adult-sized diaper with extra absorption material is used because astronauts cannot remove their spacesuits during long operations, so the MAG is worn in case of an emission. Three MAGs are given during space shuttle missions, one for during launch, reentry, and a spare in case reentry needs to be tried again. It is worn underneath the Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment (LCVG).
The MAGs are similar to adult diapers but are modified so that they are pulled up like shorts. A powdery chemical absorbant called sodium polyacrylate is incorporated into the fabric of the garment. Sodium polyacrylate can absorb around one thousand times its weight in water. The MAG absorbs the liquid and pulls it away from the skin.
In 1988, the Maximum Absorbency Garment replaced the Disposable Absorption Containment Trunk (DACT) for female astronauts. Male astronauts then followed suit, because it didn't leak and it was more comfortable. In the 1980s, NASA ordered 3,200 of the diapers and, as of 2007, a third of the supply remains.
See also
References
- Two Men in a Tub
- Factfile: Walking in Space
- Shuttle EMU End Items
- What's Up With the Diaper?
- NASA diapers become topic No.1
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- This page was last modified on 23 November 2008, at 14:15.
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