Living Among the Stars

How would you like to live three hundred and sixty kilometers above the Earth, flying at almost thirty thousand kilometres an hour through dark, airless space? Well, that’s exactly how the astronauts working on the giant International Space Station (ISS) live. ‘Cool!’ you might say. Well maybe. Let’s take a look at what it’s really like to live in space.

I - International

S - Space

S - Station

Keeping Clean and Healthy

Living in zero gravity means doing lots of things differently. First of all, you can forget about having a nice hot shower in the morning, as the water droplets would simply float away. Astronauts have to use a vacuum hose to wash with. Also, when muscles don’t have to work against gravity as they do here on Earth, they go soft. So the residents of the ISS actually spend 2 hours a day working out on exercise bikes and rowing machines.

a vacuum hose

Good Housekeeping

There’s no escape from household chores on the ISS. As dangerous bacteria grow quickly in zero gravity, the astronauts clean the whole station every day, which is about the size of a football pitch! Also the lack of gravity makes the simplest things in life seem quite weird! Take eating for example, to stop their meals floating away, astronauts have to ‘post’ food packages into a special tray and then strap the tray to their legs. At least there’s no washing up to do, though. The astronauts simply put their dirty dishes and rubbish into plastic bags and send them back to Earth.

Time to Relax

When it comes to sleeping, there’s no need for a bedroom! The astronauts could sleep anywhere, but they can’t risk bumping into any computer controls so they strap themselves into a sleeping bag on the wall. It’s a truly relaxing experience, as nothing presses against the skin. It’s important to cover your eyes, however, to block out the light of the sun as the sun rises and sets every 45 minutes when you are orbiting the Earth