Al Shepard on the very first Mercury flight had to pee in his suit; as his flight was to be less than 20 minutes no-one had thought to install a urine collection device, but the launch was delayed by some hours due to various hiccups. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Redstone_3#Flight . I think ever since then one has been attached/worn (depending on the type) while the astronaut was actually wearing a spacesuit, whether or not on a spacewalk.
Sometimes it’s just a losing effort to point out the weakness of a joke. Yeah, NASA gave serious meeting time to this issue that is completely obvious to any-one who considers that space walks must be engineer where the need to urinate would be considered with equal thought as the need to breath or and withstand pressure or anything else, and that just about everyone else has made the joke and that it’s really only six year olds who think its funny or a slew of reasons why this barely qualifies as meh…
But still, a cartoonist thought and future cartoonists will eternally think it’s funny joke….
It’s the juxtaposition of a problem that affects parents affecting someone who isn’t a parent that’s the joke.
It’s like a co-worker having to tell another co-worker not to climb on a tree that won’t have to take the weight. You shouldn’t HAVE to tell a grown-up not to do something stupid, especially if it’s a situation that should have been learned in childhood.
Is it great humor? Probably not. But it’s valid humor. Deadlines are vicious… they never let up.
I initially thought it was flatulence for which I do not think they have a “device.” The line would have been, “I told you not to eat chili before the walk.” That seemed funny to me.
James Pollack – We have a sort of solution in the RV. Unless it is too cold for water, we don’t travel without water in the tanks – just in case we (okay, I) need to make a rest stop when there is no place to stop – and believe me I am the expert on where one can stop whether it is day or night.
Scott – The Smithsonian Space Museum has had all the accoutrements on display for decades, often labeled with the name of the astronaut who it is was for.
Meryl — Alan Shepard was an apex test pilot in top physical shape, not an incontinent octogenarian — high G forces weren’t going to make him accidentally release his bladder. Aside from all the tests they put him through on giant whirling G-force simulators, the question wouldn’t really even have made sense to anyone: test pilots regularly encounter high G forces in flying jets, and they don’t wet themselves when they do. There’s no reason being strapped to the top of a ballistic missile for 15 minutes would change that. What they failed to consider, as narmitaj points out, is that he might be stuck up there for longer than the 15 minutes of the flight — considerably longer.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Doesn’t mean a cartoonist wouldn’t think it’s a funny joke.
It’s such a funny joke nearly all cartoonists have made it.
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I highly recommend Mary Roach’s ‘Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void’ for answers to these type of questions.
As for the comic: meh.
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Al Shepard on the very first Mercury flight had to pee in his suit; as his flight was to be less than 20 minutes no-one had thought to install a urine collection device, but the launch was delayed by some hours due to various hiccups. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Redstone_3#Flight . I think ever since then one has been attached/worn (depending on the type) while the astronaut was actually wearing a spacesuit, whether or not on a spacewalk.
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Parents have been addressing this problem for way more than 60 years, and it’s still a problem.
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“Doesn’t mean a cartoonist wouldn’t think it’s a funny joke.”
If he’s six years old.
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What do astronauts and Formula 1 race car drivers have in common? They wear diapers.
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>”If he’s six years old.”
Sometimes it’s just a losing effort to point out the weakness of a joke. Yeah, NASA gave serious meeting time to this issue that is completely obvious to any-one who considers that space walks must be engineer where the need to urinate would be considered with equal thought as the need to breath or and withstand pressure or anything else, and that just about everyone else has made the joke and that it’s really only six year olds who think its funny or a slew of reasons why this barely qualifies as meh…
But still, a cartoonist thought and future cartoonists will eternally think it’s funny joke….
Whadya going to do?
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“If he’s six years old.”
It’s the juxtaposition of a problem that affects parents affecting someone who isn’t a parent that’s the joke.
It’s like a co-worker having to tell another co-worker not to climb on a tree that won’t have to take the weight. You shouldn’t HAVE to tell a grown-up not to do something stupid, especially if it’s a situation that should have been learned in childhood.
Is it great humor? Probably not. But it’s valid humor. Deadlines are vicious… they never let up.
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And I guess Ed wouldn’t be prepared to make a speed run to Florida
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Was one of the astronauts chanting “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” on their way up to space?
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“The Curious Science of Life in the Void”
The issue here is void in the void.
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Re: Void in the void
Wally Schirra called the new constellation so created “Urion”
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And I guess Ed wouldn’t be prepared to make a speed run to Florida
Ha ha! That’s what I was thinking!
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I initially thought it was flatulence for which I do not think they have a “device.” The line would have been, “I told you not to eat chili before the walk.” That seemed funny to me.
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When I visited the NASA Museum in Huntsville, Alabama in 1978, the bathrooms had exhibits about this very issue.
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narmitaj – This has never made sense to me – what if the gravity forces when he took off made him pee.
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James Pollack – We have a sort of solution in the RV. Unless it is too cold for water, we don’t travel without water in the tanks – just in case we (okay, I) need to make a rest stop when there is no place to stop – and believe me I am the expert on where one can stop whether it is day or night.
Scott – The Smithsonian Space Museum has had all the accoutrements on display for decades, often labeled with the name of the astronaut who it is was for.
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Meryl — Alan Shepard was an apex test pilot in top physical shape, not an incontinent octogenarian — high G forces weren’t going to make him accidentally release his bladder. Aside from all the tests they put him through on giant whirling G-force simulators, the question wouldn’t really even have made sense to anyone: test pilots regularly encounter high G forces in flying jets, and they don’t wet themselves when they do. There’s no reason being strapped to the top of a ballistic missile for 15 minutes would change that. What they failed to consider, as narmitaj points out, is that he might be stuck up there for longer than the 15 minutes of the flight — considerably longer.
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It doesn’t matter. They’re not tethered to the spacecraft, and they’re not wearing jet packs. They’re both doomed.
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