This Bottle Contains The Breath Of The Greatest Space Heroes

It looks like a tiny bottle of liquid, but you are looking at the breath of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, the crew of Apollo 11, the first humans to land on the moon, condensed into liquid.

A sample of wastewater taken from the Apollo 11 command module after its return to Earth. The item is a 2.5-inch tall bottle about one-quarter of the way full of the clear liquid. A typed label affixed to the glass reads Apollo 11, Post Flight Waste Tank 0720Z 7/25/69.

According the consignor, the liquid is actually condensation formed as a result of the astronauts breathing.

Needless to say, if you drink this holy water, you will become stronger than Captain America, smarter than Stephen Hawking and grow your steel balls courage level up to +2591. Yes, my dear space nerds, that’s courage balls the size of two entire planetary systems.

How was this captured

The breath’s humidity was captured by the Apollo environmental control system, which had 180 parts compared to the eight for a window AC unit. It performed 23 functions, which included air cooling, air heating, ventilation to suits, ventilation to cabin, air filtration, CO2 removal, odour removal using activated charcoal filters and humidity control. The latter was the part that collected excessive humidity in the command module atmosphere, which couldn’t exceed 70 per cent or go below 40 per cent. That condensed liquid was then stored in a waste tank.

In case you are wondering, the pee was ejected directly into space as a golden nebula of frozen stars using a hose in which astronauts introduced their penises. Faeces weren’t ejected as meteorites into space, however. They were stored in bags at the end of the cumbersome and disgusting process you can imagine, which included using your fingers and, after collecting every bit and piece into the bag, massaging the crap with an anti-germ dust inside the bag.

The bottle of space heroes’ breath will be auctioned alongside stuff like an Apollo 11 flight plan page, Neil Armstrong’s letter with his first words on the moon, the Apollo 14 lunar Bible and Armstrong’s training glove. Other objects in the auction start at only $US200. [Apollo Experience Report, JSC and Apollo Saturn Facts via RR Auction via CNET]


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