How do you go to the bathroom in space?

Non propulsive venting:
Evacuation from the spacecraft of gasses or fluids into the vacuum of space without altering the tragectory of the spacecraft.

bbbbrrrrrrrrrbbbbbbbt....

pfffffrrrrrrrrrrrrttttt...

'Ah that's better - the sheer joy of farting in space' - Jim Lovell*.

'There is no single thing that symbolises the freedom of expression in a civilised society than the ability of it's citizens to fart without guilt or fear of social exclusion'.
- Mahatma Ghandi.

Perhaps the most at liberty mankind has ever felt in the expression of this basic human imperative is summed up in this 2001 interview with Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot Michael Collins:

People often ask me how I feel about being a crew member of the first mission to land on the moon and not having had the chance to walk on the moon myself. Well, for the most part I say that I felt it a great priviledge to be there atall, and that my mission also had it's unique features. I certainly had enough to do - there wasn't a moment I had the chance to look sorrowfully out of the window at the landing site in Mare Tranquilitatus and long to be there with Neil and Buzz. I was just too busy.

Added to that was the incredible opportunity to savour the fact that at that point I was further away from the earth than any human had ever been throughout the entire history of the human race.
I was also looking out of the window at the dark side of the moon - invisible for all eternity from our home planet. But perhaps most profound of all is the fact that on the dark side of the moon, no communication with mission control or any of the earth's tracking stations is possible. I was in the truest possible sense of the word completely, uniquely and utterly alone.

So it was then that with only the darkest infinite depths of the universe as witness, I vented the most satisfying and profoundly meaningful expulsion of foul gas from the bowels ever before attempted by the human race.

So what was it like to fart in space?

In a word: divine. Yes literally - I felt that I was part of the Universe. Completely bonded with the chemical and molecular forces which constitute our very existence. The universe was breathing me in and breathing me out, and somewhere out there in the great vastness of space there are now random human gasseous and liquid elements contributing to the endless ebb and flow of existence. How did I do it?. I farted into the urine dump tube. Amazing what humans get up to when no one is looking isn't it?.


* Quote attributed to Mission Commander Jim Lovell in official accounts of the mission, but it is also possible that one of the other crew members originated the communication.