Things can spill, sometimes, and that’s bad– oil, hydraulic fluid, whatever, it needs to be cleaned up. But one thing that always seems to happen is that an imperative to clean things up after a spill becomes so onerous, with multiple reports, difficult safety equipment, and the like that the unfortunate result can be that people will simply try to hide a spill rather than do the right thing.
Obviously, spills or even discarding leftover parts or just regular garbage has to be done in a manner that protects the environment, leads to crew safety and allows the mission to continue, but there are no easy answers. Garbage disposal is so routine in society that we’ve established a system that minimally impacts daily life, so maybe if we did something similar for vehicle & mechanical waste it would be easier and low-impact. Like medical waste in hospitals, with medical waste collection bags and bins made routinely part of the background so that contaminated supplies aren’t a big deal to clean up, there should be similar bags, and clean-up rags, for spilled oils and other fluids as well as disposed parts covered in gunk. Then we can get rid of this stuff without having it become a manufactured panic with the chain of command.
For all I know this already exists, but I haven’t seen it prominently displayed.
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