What?
Orbital Flush is a toilet that flushes whenever an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) flushes. It’s mounted on a rotating platform that tracks the ISS as it orbits Earth.
Why?
The idea for Orbital Flush came from a macOS menu bar app that displayed the urine tank level on the International Space Station in real-time. But also… why not?
How?
Using telemetry from NASA’s defunct ISSLive project, we detect urine tank level increases to trigger the flush. A Raspberry Pi controls the flush mechanism, and a motor rotates the platform based on ISS orbital data from the US Combined Space Operations Center.
Build details
Non-electronic parts: Home Depot Electronics: Taobao/Amazon Toilet tank platform: 3D-printed Rotating platform: Designed using VCarve and Adobe Illustrator, CNC routed using an AltMill at Sienci Labs in Waterloo (thanks Scott and Andy <3) First prototype built in Jan 2025 for the Atelier Showcase; rebuilt for the Mar 2025 Socratica Symposium. In both cases, we were finished mere hours before the event.
What next?
Not really sure, maybe we can sell it at Sotheby’s or Christie’s or something. Dumber projects have achieved that, I’m sure.
More info
Kai is in the process of writing up a much lengthier (and much ramblier) blogpost, detailing the whole journey and some fun behind-the-scenes details, which you can find here.