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So does he relieve himself in his power armor like an astronaut or does he have some kind of chute that opens up?

The armor has full recycling systems for bodily waste.

Spetulhu wrote:
The armor has full recycling systems for bodily waste.

Not that surprising considering power armor typically has a miniature fusion reactor. Any waste is just burned.

Haha the marines have a poop tube.

It's probably a portion of the black carapace that hooks up the large intestine and bladder to the power armor, somewhere below the abdominals and above the genitalia.

Just theorizing though.

Spetulhu wrote:
The armor has full recycling systems for bodily waste.

OMG! The Human Centipede!

In Dead Sky, Black Sun, Ventris makes reference to having not eatten anything that wasn't just recycyled paste from his suit for a long period of time. Only reference I can think of about how the suit recycles the users waste and makes it into food again...

More like an armoured STILLSUIT from "Dune".
Since that was one of the stories that "influenced" 40k.

Those also had waste collection abilities. Water was filtered out and stored, solid wastes also had water extracted, and the solids collected for later disposal. This was all the responsibility of the owner of the suit to do.

Nocturus wrote:
In Dead Sky, Black Sun, Ventris makes reference to having not eatten anything that wasn't just recycyled paste from his suit for a long period of time. Only reference I can think of about how the suit recycles the users waste and makes it into food again...

Well, Wikipedia says human poop is about 3/4 water. But there's not all that much left in it that you could actually "digest" apparently, even if you could get all the nasty stuff back out. But I guess you could mix the water with some dried protein powder (which would store smaller) or something.

Regardless. . .. ewww.

I've always wondered how much they would require to eat to maintain their muscle.

 ChazSexington wrote:
I've always wondered how much they would require to eat to maintain their muscle.

Seeing how they're about 7 feet tall and hugely muscled they probably eat more than most present-day strongmen. Those big guys can consume 15-20K calories a day when training, and would likely need 2-3 times what you and I need just to not melt away if they do nothing.

 argonak wrote:

Well, Wikipedia says human poop is about 3/4 water. But there's not all that much left in it that you could actually "digest" apparently, even if you could get all the nasty stuff back out. But I guess you could mix the water with some dried protein powder (which would store smaller) or something.

Regardless. . .. ewww.

Break the water down to just water and it's not ewww, it's just water... you know this is already done in modern countries with waste water right

Spetulhu wrote:

 ChazSexington wrote:
I've always wondered how much they would require to eat to maintain their muscle.

Seeing how they're about 7 feet tall and hugely muscled they probably eat more than most present-day strongmen. Those big guys can consume 15-20K calories a day when training, and would likely need 2-3 times what you and I need just to not melt away if they do nothing.

Exactly. I'm guessing they don't need the same kind of working out, but they need the nutrients to maintain.

GAdvance wrote:

 argonak wrote:

Well, Wikipedia says human poop is about 3/4 water. But there's not all that much left in it that you could actually "digest" apparently, even if you could get all the nasty stuff back out. But I guess you could mix the water with some dried protein powder (which would store smaller) or something.

Regardless. . .. ewww.

Break the water down to just water and it's not ewww, it's just water... you know this is already done in modern countries with waste water right

Yeah. In the rational part of my brain. But the other half of my brain says "icky icky!"

Seeing how they're about 7 feet tall and hugely muscled they probably eat more than most present-day strongmen. Those big guys can consume 15-20K calories a day when training, and would likely need 2-3 times what you and I need just to not melt away if they do nothing.

They've probably got some scientific super dense food though for them to eat. Except space wolves, they just drink more beer and eat big slabs of meat.

Do marines ever take their armor off or do they simply live in it? Like say when they are at their chapter HQ in their "downtime" are they out of the armor or is it some kind of sarcophagus they have to wear constantly?

They eat massive amounts of food when they are able, laced with ceramics and other elements to strengthen their bodies. They are also able to go long periods of time without food.

Most likely they eat hyper-concentrated nourishment gruel, or something like that.

Their advanced bodies being vastly more efficient at processing food seems logical as well. Reducing the need for supplies as much as possible is a very relevant trait for a warrior.

Considering that Space Marines have a food store in their suit and can eat anything (Pre-Stomach).

6th edition codex states their armour has a "nutrient reservoir", containing a self-replenishing food source tailor made for their metabolism.

Their waste products are filtered through a number of systems that turn them into nutrient paste or, once it can no longer be re-converted, fed into the fusion reactor.

 Resin Glazed Guardsman wrote:
Do marines ever take their armor off or do they simply live in it? Like say when they are at their chapter HQ in their "downtime" are they out of the armor or is it some kind of sarcophagus they have to wear constantly?

The fluff definitely says they take their armor off. There's pictures of their armor being assembled onto them as well, somewhere. Can't remember where I saw that one though.

 Resin Glazed Guardsman wrote:
Do marines ever take their armor off or do they simply live in it? Like say when they are at their chapter HQ in their "downtime" are they out of the armor or is it some kind of sarcophagus they have to wear constantly?

They take it off, and wear soft clothing. Robes and such.
However I don't know if they expressly wear shoes. At a guess they probably wear sandals.

 argonak wrote:

Nocturus wrote:
In Dead Sky, Black Sun, Ventris makes reference to having not eatten anything that wasn't just recycyled paste from his suit for a long period of time. Only reference I can think of about how the suit recycles the users waste and makes it into food again...

Well, Wikipedia says human poop is about 3/4 water. But there's not all that much left in it that you could actually "digest" apparently, even if you could get all the nasty stuff back out. But I guess you could mix the water with some dried protein powder (which would store smaller) or something.

Regardless. . .. ewww.

The waste would be restructured on the atomic level. The waste proteins would be transferred into usable ones, the carbon could be restructured into a carbohydrate using the water, etc...

Plus marines can digest things normal humans would find inedible. So there isn't as big of a burden on making nutrition out of it.

I doubt the paste the suits make out of their feces and urine to be anything a human could eat. Its probably more akin to ground up cardboard. Artificially made cellulose as a source of energy, infused with whatever vitamins and minerals could be salvaged.

Naturally this wouldn't be an endless cycle. The marine would have to eat "real" food eventually. it would just allow for extended operations without additional food.

Resin Glazed Guardsman wrote:Do marines ever take their armor off or do they simply live in it? Like say when they are at their chapter HQ in their "downtime" are they out of the armor or is it some kind of sarcophagus they have to wear constantly?

Ultramarines at the very least are well-known for lounging around in bathrobes, getting oiled up and massaged by their slave boys serfs between training missions.

 Furyou Miko wrote:

Resin Glazed Guardsman wrote:Do marines ever take their armor off or do they simply live in it? Like say when they are at their chapter HQ in their "downtime" are they out of the armor or is it some kind of sarcophagus they have to wear constantly?

Ultramarines at the very least are well-known for lounging around in bathrobes, getting oiled up and massaged by their slave boys serfs between training missions.

Sounds like a good time.

It's never been explained how a Marine inside his power armour would be able to pass solid waste and have his armour process it...

Having a relief tube is relatively easy for taking care of urine, but anything is just too complex - you either wear a nappy, like U2 spy plane pilots do, or you take off your spacesuit or whatever it is so that you can take a dump. In the W40K universe you'd have to assume that part of the surgical processes marines go through is to adapt their internal plumbing so that they can link it directly to their armour.

 farmersboy wrote:
It's never been explained how a Marine inside his power armour would be able to pass solid waste and have his armour process it...

Having a relief tube is relatively easy for taking care of urine, but anything is just too complex - you either wear a nappy, like U2 spy plane pilots do, or you take off your spacesuit or whatever it is so that you can take a dump. In the W40K universe you'd have to assume that part of the surgical processes marines go through is to adapt their internal plumbing so that they can link it directly to their armour.

Space-diaper, which then through mechanical and chemical processes separates recoverable nutrients from waste products, the former being reconstituted into nutrient paste, the latter being routed into the reactor.

This should help explain it somewhat.


Essentially, recycling happens. The marines tend to be fed a nutrient paste from their suit.