- MCC! Our computer is out of order! What to do??
- Play as a substitute! I repeat! Play on the bench! (earthly humor)
To understand what astronauts do in orbit, we invite you to live a whole day on the ISS and see what exactly the astronauts do.
06:00. Rise (times in this schedule are given in GMT)
The start of the main astronaut shift for the American Control Center occurs at midnight, complicating the work of NASA's Mission Control Center and seriously increasing the load on the coffee machines. It’s easier for the Moscow Mission Control Center; for them, the astronauts rise to the station at nine o’clock in the morning.
Mornings on the International Space Station aren't necessarily good. Besides the fact that you wake up to an alarm, like millions of other people left on Earth, in space you may wake up with a sore head from oxygen starvation. The thing is that, despite the constant ventilation on board the station, the air on the ISS moves more slowly, without creating strong currents from drafts. As a result, it turns out that the carbon dioxide exhaled by astronauts remains near the face.
Cosmonauts often complain about lack of sleep, nightmares and bad dreams, although they are given eight and a half hours of sleep (the dream of any Muscovite!). There are problems in orbit and with falling asleep. Sleeping in a sleeping bag tied to the wall in the absence of the usual gravity is not so easy. For safety reasons, the light does not turn off completely. And if you wake up in the middle of the night with the desire to drink some water and go to the toilet, then it is much easier to force yourself to wait until the morning than, like space ghosts, to fly half asleep along the corridors of the ISS.
Yes, no one on the ISS is particularly interested in whether you are a night owl or a lark. Only those “birds” who are ready to go to bed on command and get up at the alarm clock at any time of the year are accepted as cosmonauts.
06:00–07:30. Personal time, hygiene procedures, breakfast
Once every three days, astronauts put on fresh underwear. There are no washing machines in space, so shorts and T-shirts are taken into orbit in just such quantities. After use, all “disposable” clothing is transferred to the Russian space “truck” “Progress”, in which it will burn in the dense layers of the atmosphere. Shirts are changed once a month, socks - once a week.
No one has canceled the rules of hygiene for astronauts, so in the morning everyone washes, shave, brushes their teeth and even washes their hair with a special composition that was once developed for hospital patients who cannot use the shower. Wiping with wet wipes and other procedures are not very convenient, but are required for a confined space inhabited by three to eight people at a time.
07:30–07:45. Discussion with the Earth about the work of the coming day
As a rule, the schedule of work and experiments at the station is approved in advance, but every morning a short discussion is held, at which urgent tasks are set and changes in the schedule are discussed. The working week on the ISS lasts five and a half days, the remaining day and a half are considered days off. Weekends do not mean that absolutely no work is being done, it’s just that no planned experiments or serious work are scheduled during this time.
07:49–09:45. Day job
Residents of village houses know that they require constant work all the time. Either the hinges on the door need to be replaced, or the gutter needs to be repaired, or the porch needs to be touched up. The ISS can most easily be compared to such a house, only larger and much more complex. Almost all systems require regular testing, inspection and repair. Only on Earth do jokes about a clogged space toilet cause many smiles. This is a normal routine for astronauts.
Among the work carried out at the station, three main directions can be distinguished. The first is checking all systems, repairing them, or routinely replacing replaceable components. American astronauts even joked that working on the ISS was like a giant space car service: All systems require filter changes and regular testing.
Second type of work - This is loading and unloading. Several hundredweights of food, water and equipment for experiments arrive with space cargo ships. Unloading each of these “trucks” turns into a long and uninteresting task - You need to move all the boxes and packaging one by one to the desired compartment and secure them there. You can’t just throw food into the technological compartment and leave it to fly in conditions of reduced gravity: then you simply won’t be able to find anything. Space teaches you to be careful.
The third type of work activity is conducting scientific experiments. Most of all, this is similar to quests given from Earth. The schedule of scientific work carried out for Russian cosmonauts can be read on the page of the Federal Space Agency. Most of them sound more like forfeits assigned to the loser.
December 9, 2016"Algometry". Study of pain sensitivity in humans during space flight. Registration of PSP (pain sensitivity threshold) by the method of mechanical stimulation using the “Algometer” installation in the strain- and thermal-algometry mode. Entering data onto the “TTA - Data” storage medium. BI1/BI2 - 1 hour 20 minutes.
Let's decipher. One flight engineer hurt another for eighty minutes and recorded the results. All in the name of science! Experiments may sound or look funny, but they are a very important part of space life. Only with the help of dozens of such experiments will scientists on Earth be able to better answer the question: How does space influence a person? What needs to be done to ensure that staying on the ISS does not negatively affect the health of astronauts?
09:45–13:00. Sports: exercise bike, treadmill, strength exercises
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a weekday or a weekend, sporting events cannot be cancelled. Faced with muscle atrophy, it was decided that the only effective prevention could be constant sports activity. Therefore, on the ISS, two to three hours a day are devoted to sports. But within a few hours after returning from a flight that lasted several months, the astronauts are able to walk.
Due to disruption of the recovery processes, on average, one and a half percent of astronauts’ bone tissue is lost for each month in orbit. The lower vertebrae, pelvis and hips are especially affected. Bones become fragile, the processes occurring are similar to osteoporosis. It's still unclear Does prolonged exposure to weightlessness cause irreparable damage to the body? To combat the effects of atrophy, the ISS has two treadmills to which a person is attached by shock-absorbing cables.
13:00–14:00. Dinner
The era of tubes of space food is forever a thing of the past. There are three types of food on the ISS: packages of cooked wet food (they just need to be heated), dehydrated food (it is poured with boiling water), and non-perishable food (sealed and eaten as is). Astronauts have also successfully grown plants in microgravity, but we are still a long way from large-scale crop harvests in space.
The worst situation in orbit is with fresh vegetables and fruits. Sometimes they are sent a little at a time to astronauts, but this is too expensive and ineffective. Although very tasty. It was the Progress MS-04 that was involved in the accident that was carrying a cargo of New Year's tangerines to the ISS, which, alas, did not reach their recipients.
Breakfast and dinner are not separately allocated in the schedule, and the astronauts snatch personal time for them, both in the morning and in the evening.
15:00–16:30. Continued work
As a rule, astronauts work in pairs or threes so as not to interfere with each other. Most of the jobs are not only difficult, but also require serious preparation. As a result, it turns out that simply going somewhere and taking equipment for an experiment turns into a very time-consuming task. Astronauts have to unpack the equipment, prepare it for work, then carefully pack and attach it.
One of the basic rules of life at the station: not a single thing should be left out of place. So if you see something flying in the video, rest assured that it was made exclusively for filming. Afterwards, things will take their place in special nets and trunks.
16:30–17:40. Connection with the Earth. Personal medical and psychological consultation
The best way to prevent possible diseases and illnesses is regular prevention. Almost every day, astronauts talk about their well-being to their attending physicians and talk with a psychologist who closely monitors their state of mind. The fact that the most prepared people get to the ISS does not mean that they cannot get sick.
17:40–18:35. Public relations work
The best way to show most people the benefits of working on the International Space Station is to provide regular reminders. Most of the videos created by astronauts in orbit are part of the work process. They try to make them interesting and educational.
Also, astronauts regularly have to get in touch - either with federal channels, or even with small space communication points, of which there are quite a few around the world. For example, in St. Petersburg, such a point is equipped even in one of the large shopping centers, the Raduga shopping and entertainment center, located on Kosmonavtov Avenue. There is a circle of space enthusiasts working there, and from time to time this communication center gets a few minutes to communicate with the astronauts to ask questions.
18:35–19:30. Preparing for the next day's work. Discussion with the Earth about the work of the past day
Before reporting to Earth that most of the work has been completed, the cosmonauts once again check whether all things are secured and whether all station parameters are in operating mode. As at the beginning of work, several control centers on Earth have to talk about the past day. NASA, MCC, European ESA, Japanese JAXA - all of them participate in maintaining the functionality of the ISS, and therefore add their tasks to the astronauts’ schedule.
19:30–21:30. Personal time before bed
This includes dinner and the opportunity to do something personal. Now there are fewer problems with personal communication. There is a stable channel between the Earth and the ISS, and there is always the opportunity to write a letter to your family from your personal laptop, post a photo from the station to the social network Instagram, or simply read the news.
Cosmonauts can ask the Control Center to broadcast television programs to them, but due to the heavy workload this happens infrequently. State elections, the opening of the Olympic Games, and the finals of major sports championships have this priority. Each of the astronauts has their own laptop with movies, e-books and a player with music. Without these little things, life in orbit would become very difficult and joyless.
You can wait until the weekend when you have more time. You can spend it on taking a beautiful photo from the Dome panoramic module. Or just look from above at one of the 32 sunsets and sunrises that the inhabitants of the ISS manage to see during the day.
21:30–06:00. Dream
Good night. It's time to get into the bags and buckle up. Tomorrow will be another difficult, but very important day.
Previously, the astronaut did not take off his spacesuit throughout the entire flight. Now in everyday life he wears a T-shirt with shorts or overalls. T-shirts in orbit in six colors to choose from depending on your mood. Instead of buttons there are zippers and Velcro: they won’t come off. The more pockets the better. Oblique breastplates allow you to quickly hide objects so that they do not fly apart in zero gravity. Wide calf pockets are useful because astronauts often assume the fetal position. Instead of shoes, thick socks are worn.
Toilet
The first astronauts wore diapers. They are still used now, but only during spacewalks and during takeoff and landing. A waste disposal system began to be developed at the dawn of astronautics. The toilet operates on the principle of a vacuum cleaner. The rarefied air flow sucks in the waste, and it ends up in a bag, which is then unfastened and thrown into the container. Another takes his place. Filled containers are sent into outer space - they burn up in the atmosphere. At the Mir station, liquid waste was purified and turned into drinking water. For body hygiene, wet wipes and towels are used. Although “shower cabins” have also been developed.
Food
Tubes of food have become a symbol of the space lifestyle. They began to be made in Estonia in the 1960s. Squeezing from tubes, the astronauts ate chicken fillet, beef tongue and even borscht. In the 80s, sublimated products began to be delivered into orbit - up to 98% of the water was removed from them, which significantly reduces mass and volume. Hot water is poured into the bag with the dry mixture - and lunch is ready. They also eat canned food on the ISS. The bread is packaged in small bite-size loaves to prevent crumbs from scattering throughout the compartment: this is fraught with problems. The kitchen table has holders for containers and utensils. A “suitcase” is also used to heat food.
Cabin
In zero gravity, it doesn’t matter where you sleep, the main thing is to securely fix your body. On the ISS, sleeping bags with zippers are attached directly to the walls. By the way, in the cabins of Russian cosmonauts there are portholes that allow you to admire the view of the Earth before going to bed. But Americans don’t have “windows.” The cabin contains personal belongings, photos of relatives, and music players. All small objects (tools, pencils, etc.) are either slipped under special rubber bands on the walls or secured with Velcro. For this purpose, the walls of the ISS are covered with fleecy material. There are also many handrails at the station.
A COMMENT
Vladimir Solovyov, flight director of the Russian segment of the ISS:
- The life of astronauts has improved significantly. On board the ISS there is the Internet, the ability to send messages and read news. Communication tools make it possible to connect astronauts with their family and friends by telephone. There is always a lot of food at the station. Moreover, the astronauts choose their own menu.
You can make borscht, mashed potatoes, and pasta from freeze-dried foods. The only thing left in the tubes now is juice and a small nutrition kit used on approach to the station.
With every cargo ship we also send fresh food. Astronauts live full lives. The only thing that bothers me is the noise of the fans. They work all the time, but you can’t live without them.
To understand how astronauts wash themselves in space, you need to remember that there is microgravity at the orbital station. Therefore, water does not flow there, but sticks around a person, and a flying hair can become a threat. Limited water supplies force astronauts to use them sparingly.
Showering and hand washing
Soviet space stations were equipped with showers. They were plastic and sealed. To take a shower, the astronaut put on swimming goggles and took out a breathing tube. Water dust was sprayed onto it from above, which was sucked up from below by a special vacuum cleaner.
Currently, astronauts working on the International Space Station do not use showers at all. To wash their bodies or hands, astronauts use special wet wipes and leave-in gel. The astronaut rubs the body with gel or a damp cloth soaked in it, and then wipes himself with a damp towel.
It must be soaked with water every three days. After washing, hang the towel near the ventilation shaft, where it dries faster.
For their hair, workers on the International Space Station use a special shampoo that does not require rinsing with water.
The procedure includes several points:
- Apply shampoo to hair with your hands.
- Massage your scalp vigorously.
- Dry your head with a damp towel.
- If necessary, comb.
- Allow to dry naturally.
It is important to remember that lost hair can pose a danger to plant workers. They can fly into their nose or eyes.
Going to the toilet and other hygiene issues
Everyday procedures on the International Space Station take on a number of nuances related to microgravity conditions. It can be described point by point:
- A man takes a position on the toilet seat.
- Secures himself with straps.
- Connects a special urination device to a long plastic tube that is mounted on the wall.
- For solid waste, the visitor places a specially prepared bag into the toilet. After this, imitation of gravity and fans are activated to purify the air.
- After use, the bag is placed in the waste compartment under the toilet.
Taking into account all these activities, going to the bathroom in orbit takes, on average, ten minutes longer than on the planet.
There is no sewage system in Cosmos, so the urine is mixed with other wastewater produced at the station. They are then purified into water that is once again suitable for drinking. Solid waste is placed in a tank, which is then sent overboard and burned in the upper atmosphere.
Washing astronauts' clothes would require too much water. That's why station workers wear it all the way. The dirty clothes are then placed in a trash container, which then burns in the upper atmosphere.
Station workers brush their teeth using regular toothbrushes, tubes of water and toothpaste. A paste has been developed for space flights that is safe to swallow. Therefore, astronauts either swallow water with toothpaste or spit it out into a special napkin. The water from it is squeezed out and made suitable for new use.
In 2010, several NASA videos appeared online, where astronauts demonstrate how they live and work in orbit. Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti's video shows how astronauts wash themselves in space. Another astronaut, Canadian Chris Hadfield, in his videos released in 2013, showed how they wash their hands and trim their nails in orbit.
The article talks about how astronauts go to the toilet in space and take a shower, as well as on what principle the space sewerage system and water supply system are designed.
Space
55 years ago, what many scientists dreamed of happened - man made the first space flight, escaping the boundaries of our planet.
Later, when it became clear that it was quite possible and necessary to deploy research stations in Earth’s orbit, all space powers began their design and development. However, due to the high cost of such projects, only the USA and the USSR were able to complete them. And later the ISS, the international space station, was created. It will soon celebrate twenty years of service.
But the ISS is far from the first created for long-term human habitation, which means it has everything necessary for a relatively comfortable life for astronauts and maintaining their vital functions, including a hygiene unit. And a delicate question that can often be heard from ignorant people: how do astronauts go to the toilet in space? This is what we will talk about in this article.
Hygiene
This topic rarely comes up in reports about astronauts, science films or literature, even science fiction. In works of art, inconvenient details are often suppressed. You can often find books about how brave space explorers from the future spend dozens of hours in combat or scientific spacesuits. Despite the sensitivity of the topic, a space toilet is a complex technological device, the principle and design of which were developed by the best minds in engineering. And this is not without reason.
The thing is that orbital stations and spaceships have not yet been able to create, and the problem of space toilets became acute at the dawn of space exploration. Indeed, in the absence of gravity, human vital activity will simply scatter across the compartments and can cause a short circuit or clog the air circulation system.
So how do astronauts go to the toilet in space? In fact, it's simple. Toilets are designed on the principle of a vacuum cleaner - waste is drawn in through negative air pressure and then enters the recycling system. But let's look at their device in more detail.
Installation of ISS toilets
A bathroom on an orbital station is a very important device, along with air exchange or thermoregulation systems. If it fails, further use of the station will become impossible. True, such situations have never happened before, and the astronauts have spare compact toilet devices. But the danger lies in the fact that in space it is impossible to open the porthole, throw out all the waste and ventilate the room from the unpleasant smell. So let's look at the question of how astronauts go to the toilet in space in more detail.
There are three bathrooms on the ISS, and two of them are Russian-made. Their toilets are suitable for crew members of both sexes. As already mentioned, they work on the principle of a vacuum cleaner, drawing all waste into the cleaning system and preventing it from scattering throughout the station’s compartments. And then the waste products enter the cycle of the processing system, where they are used to produce drinking and process water with oxygen.
Of course, the sanitary and hygienic block on the ISS and its toilet are very different from those on Earth. First of all, by the presence of fastenings for the legs (so that the astronaut does not fly away ahead of time), as well as special holders for the thighs. And instead of water, they use a vacuum, which draws in all the waste. After the cleaning cycle, the remaining waste is collected in special containers and, as they are filled, moved to one of the cargo ships for further disposal. So now we know how astronauts go to the toilet in space. But what if the astronaut needs to go to the toilet when he is in the spacecraft and not at the station?
Spaceship toilets
Launching a spacecraft into space and docking it with the ISS is a very difficult task. Sometimes astronauts have to sit in a rocket ready for launch for quite a long time, and the docking and maneuvering process drags on for tens of hours. Naturally, no normal person can endure so much without going to the toilet. Therefore, before launch, astronauts put on special diapers under their spacesuits. The structure of the spacecraft is such that it is impractical to spend space on creating a separate, even the simplest toilet.
If you plan to spend a long time on board the ship, as was the case in the early years, when space stations did not exist, then special toilet devices are used - flexible hoses with nozzles in the form of funnels. Negative pressure in them creates air draft, solid waste is collected in garbage cans, and liquid waste is thrown outside the ship.
How do astronauts wash?
Initially, space explorers did without water procedures. They used wet wipes. But when the first space stations were built and launched into orbit, they were all equipped with showers. The air circulation system is closed, and it is difficult to get rid of foreign odors, so astronauts need to monitor hygiene. Psychological comfort also plays an important role - after all, no one likes being dirty. So how do astronauts wash?
There are no separate showers at stations and especially on ships. And practice has shown that their construction is impractical. For washing, a special easy-to-rinse shampoo, wet wipes and tubes of water are used. Because of this, it sticks quite firmly to people’s bodies, and then they simply wipe it off with towels. Of course, this cannot be compared with a real shower, but still, this method also helps cope well with the natural pollution of the human body.
"Skylab"
This space station remained in orbit for about 6 years, and then was sent by operators into the Earth's atmosphere, where it burned up safely. True, not completely, and some of its elements still reached the surface. This station is notable for the presence of a large amount of free space and a shower.
A modern space station is a place where every available corner of space is used. But Skylab was distinguished precisely by its internal dimensions. They were such that the cosmonauts, while charging, easily flew from one wall to another and generally noted that there was a lot of free internal volume. It was at this station that there was a shower, naturally modernized for conditions without gravity.
"World"
There was also a shower at the Mir station. But the modern ISS space station does not have it, since taking a shower in orbit is not the same as taking a bath on Earth. The process was greatly delayed due to various difficulties, and the astronauts rarely used the device, preferring to wipe it down with damp towels. In addition, there is no dirt at the station, and therefore the skin gets dirty much less than on Earth.
Toilet and USSR
Everyone probably knows the name of the first cosmonaut in human history. But not everyone knows the name of the second one. He was the American Alan Shepard. And the first toilet problems for our former rivals in the space race began on May 5, 1961, before the launch of the Shepard rocket.
Alan, who by that time had been in the spacesuit for more than 8 hours, told the operator that he really needed to visit the toilet. But it was impossible to interrupt preparations for the launch, move the service tower to the ship, and then start preparing again. Such a scenario would have resulted in the flight being rescheduled. As a result, Shepard had to relieve himself directly into his suit. Engineers were afraid that this would lead to a short circuit and failure of most of the telemetry sensors, but fortunately, everything worked out.
But Gagarin’s flight was better planned. And although it lasted only 108 minutes, his ship was equipped with a special toilet device in the form of flexible hoses with funnels into which waste was sucked. True, it is not known whether Gagarin used it.
Conclusion
As you can see, a space toilet is a very important device, without which it would be impossible for astronauts to remain in Earth orbit for a long time. Despite their apparent simplicity, very large sums were spent on their design and implementation. For example, the toilet that the Americans ordered from Russia for their segment of the ISS cost them $19 million. Well, during the time we are forced to use special diapers, since sometimes work outside of ships or the ISS lasts for many hours.
And let us recall an unappetizing detail with which astronauts like to surprise overly impressionable journalists: all waste enters the recycling system, where they are converted into water and oxygen for further consumption. But any serious activity requires sacrifice, and astronauts are ready to go to great lengths to achieve their dreams.
Life in space is science fiction's biggest dream. It is also a dream that many brave men and women have been able to realize thanks to the numerous shuttle and space station missions carried out by various agencies.
However, it is not at all difficult to forget that the time they spend in space is not only walks in outer space and scientific experiments. During their missions, astronauts must adapt to a completely different lifestyle.
10. Physical changes
The human body begins to behave very strangely in space microgravity. The spine, freed from the constant gravity of the Earth, immediately begins to straighten. This process can add up to 5.72 centimeters to a person's height. The internal organs move up inside the torso, which reduces the waist by several centimeters. The cardiovascular system changes a person's appearance even more. Once the pull disappears, the powerful leg muscles (which push blood upward against gravity) begin to push blood and fluids into the upper body. This new, equal distribution of fluid significantly increases the size of the torso, making the leg girth significantly smaller. NASA jokingly calls this phenomenon “chicken legs.”
Essentially, the average human body is transformed into a cartoonish strongman with thin legs, a thin waist, and a disproportionately large upper body. Even the facial features become cartoonish as the blood flow to the upper body makes the person's face look puffy and puffy.
This may all sound pretty scary, but it's actually not that scary and doesn't cause any harm.
9. Space adaptation syndrome
Space adaptation syndrome is essentially two to three days of terrible illness that begins when the force of gravity disappears. About 80 percent of those who go into space suffer from this syndrome.
Since the body weighs nothing in microgravity, the brain gets confused. Our spatial orientation (the way our eyes and brains can determine where things are) is usually based on the force of gravity. When this power disappears, our brain cannot understand the situation, and the changes that suddenly occur in the body only add to the confusion. The brain deals with this situation by causing the person to feel a terrible malaise, similar to seasickness (which is why this condition is also known as space sickness). Symptoms can include everything from nausea and mild discomfort to persistent vomiting and hallucinations. Although conventional motion sickness medications can help in this situation, they are generally not used because gradual natural habituation is preferred.
Senator Jake Garn, a former astronaut, holds the record for the worst case of space adaptation syndrome in history. It is unclear what actually happened to him, but his teammates emphatically noted that “we shouldn’t tell stories like this.” In his part, astronauts still unofficially use the “Garn Scale,” where one Garn is a state of terrible malaise and complete incompetence. Luckily, most people don't go beyond 0.1 Garn.
8. Sleep problems
It's easy to imagine that sleeping in dark space would be fairly simple. This is actually quite a big problem. The fact is that a person who wants to sleep must fasten himself to the bunk in order to avoid floating in space and hitting various things. The space shuttle only has four sleeping bunks, so when a mission involves more people, some astronauts must use a sleeping bag strapped to the wall or just a chair. Once they reach the space station, things get a little more comfortable: there are two single cabins for the crew, complete with large windows for observing the cosmos.
Living in space (at least in the small part of it where people have been) can also lead to massive disruptions in sleep and wakefulness. The International Space Station is located in such a way that while there you can see sunsets and sunrises 16 times a day. And people have been getting used to this 90-minute day for a very long time.
Another, equally big problem is that the inside of spaceships and stations is actually very noisy. Filters, fans and all systems are constantly making noise and humming around you. Sometimes even earplugs and sleeping pills aren't enough to help them sleep until astronauts get used to the noise.
However, if you look at things optimistically, the quality of sleep you get in space can be much better than on Earth. Sleeping in zero gravity has been found to reduce sleep apnea and snoring, resulting in much more restful sleep.
7. Personal hygiene problems
When we imagine heroic astronauts on their missions, hygiene is not what comes to mind first. However, imagine a bunch of people living indoors for a long period of time. With this in mind, it's easy to see why astronauts must take personal hygiene very seriously.
Obviously, in conditions of weightlessness of souls, this is not even an option. Even if you had enough water on board, the shower water would simply stick to your body or float around in tiny beads. That is why each astronaut has a special hygiene kit (comb, toothbrush, and other personal hygiene items), which is attached to cabinets, walls and other devices. Astronauts wash their hair with a special no-rinse shampoo that was originally developed for bedridden patients in hospitals. They wash their bodies with sponges. Only shaving and brushing teeth are done in the same way as on Earth... except that they must be extremely careful. If just one shaved hair gets lost, it could end up in the eyes of other astronauts (or worse, get stuck in an important piece of equipment) and cause serious trouble.
6. Toilet
The most common question asked of people who have been in space is, surprisingly, not “What did the Earth look like?” and not the question “How did you feel in the absence of gravity?” Instead of these questions, people ask, “How did you go to the toilet?”
This is a good question, and space agencies have spent countless hours trying to make this process as easy as possible. The first space toilets operated using a simple air mechanism: air sucked excrement into a container. It also had a special vacuum tube for urination. The very first shuttles also used simpler versions called "empty tubes." As shown in the movie Apollo 13, urine from this tube was released directly into space.
One of the most important systems in a toilet was the air filtration system. The air that contained the excrement was the same air that one had to breathe, so a failure in the filters could turn an enclosed space into a very unpleasant place. Over time, toilet designs have become more diverse. When women entered the space race, a special urination system with an oval “Collector” was created for them. Rotating fans, storage methods, and waste management systems were added and improved. These days, some space toilets are so sophisticated that they can even turn urine back into drinking water.
Want to know a fun fact to embarrass your astronaut friend? People planning to go into space must practice using a space toilet using a very specific device called an "attitude trainer." This is a training toilet with a video camera under the rim. The astronaut must sit correctly... looking at the monitor at his bare butt. It is considered one of the "deep and best-kept secrets about space flight."
5. Clothes
The most famous space clothing, of course, is the spacesuit. They come in a variety of sizes, colors and shapes, from Yuri Gagarin's primitive SK-1 to NASA's bulky AX-5 Hardshell. On average, the suit weighs approximately 122 kilograms (in its normal state in the presence of normal gravity), and in order to climb into it you need to spend 45 minutes. It is so bulky that astronauts must use Lower Torso Assembly Donning Handles to put it on.
However, there are many other things about space clothing that are worth learning about. Life in space requires a much smaller wardrobe than on Earth. After all, how can a person get dirty there? You rarely go outside (and if you do, there's a special suit for it), and the inside of the shuttle or station is absolutely clean. You also sweat much less, since with zero gravity there is virtually no stress. Astronaut teams typically change clothes every three days.
Clothing also played a big role in NASA's fight against human waste. The original plan was to install toilet facilities directly into the spacesuits. When this proved impossible, the agency created special "maximum absorbency clothing" to serve as an astronaut's emergency toilet. Essentially, these are special high-tech shorts that can absorb up to two liters of liquid.
4. Atrophy
Even though the proportions of the human figure become cartoonish and Superman-like, microgravity does not make us stronger. In fact, it works in the opposite direction. On Earth, we use our muscles constantly: not just to lift things and move around, but simply to fight gravity. In space, the lack of muscle activity in zero gravity quickly leads to muscle atrophy (muscles begin to shrink and weaken). Over time, even the spine and bones weaken because they do not need to support weight.
To combat this degradation and maintain muscle mass, astronauts have to exercise a lot. For example, the crew of the ISS (International Space Station) must train in a special gym for 2.5 hours every day.
3. Flatulence
Flatulence can be very unpleasant and embarrassing. And when you are in space, it can also become a real threat to your health. At least that's what NASA thought in 1969, when they were studying a question called "intestinal hydrogen and methane in people eating a space diet." It may sound funny, but the question was very real and valid. Flatulence is much more than just an unpleasant odor. It produces significant quantities of methane and hydrogen, which are flammable gases. The second part of the problem is that space food is very different from the normal diet of earthlings. The food that the first astronauts ate caused serious gas formation. Their rampant flatulence was considered a potential cause of explosion risk, so poor scientists had to analyze their gases in order to create diets that caused less gas.
Today, flatulence is not considered a huge risk to life. However, it never hurts to pay attention to what you eat while indoors on a spacecraft. Nobody likes that guy who passes gas in an elevator for months on end.
2. Space can ruin your brain 
Astronauts tend to be very resistant to psychological pressure, after all, space agencies conduct psychological tests to make sure people can handle the stress and not go crazy during a mission. However, life in space can still be dangerous for the brain. In fact, space itself can cause serious problems for people who live there for long periods of time. The problem is cosmic radiation: the background radiation from the universe that essentially turns space into a low-intensity microwave oven. The Earth's atmosphere protects us from cosmic radiation, but once you are outside of it, there is no effective protection from the radiation. The longer a person spends in space, the more his brain suffers from radiation. Among other things, it can speed up the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
So when humanity eventually prepares to conquer Mars and other planets, the flight may well cause irreparable damage to our brains.
1. Monstrous microbes
“Sick” homes are buildings that suffer from a major mold problem and therefore pose a health risk to their occupants. They are unpleasant to live in, but at least the inhabitants can always move to a new place or go outside to breathe fresh air.
“Sick” spaceships and stations do not provide such an opportunity.
Mold, germs, bacteria and fungi are a serious problem in space. Large enough concentrations of them can damage complex equipment and cause health risks, and no matter how well the shuttles are disinfected before they leave the atmosphere, these little nasties will always find a way to tag along.
Once they get into space, the microbes stop behaving like ordinary mold and become something like creatures from video games. They develop into moisture, which eventually condenses into hidden, free-floating globules of germ-infested water. These floating concentrations of water can be the size of a basketball, and they are so loaded with dangerous microbes that they can even damage stainless steel. This makes them a dire danger to the crew and the space station itself if proper safety precautions are not followed.