The living and working conditions of Astronauts in space are extremely calculated and require deliberate attention. The astronauts must prepare to deal with motion sickness, claustrophobia, medical emergencies, and long work days. Aside for human physiology not being designed for weightlessness, astronauts must also ensure that every loose particle is contained at the risk of causing equipment damage.
Health and hygiene
To slow down the bone loss and muscle deterioration of being in an environment with significantly less gravity than on Earth, astronauts must exercise for two hours a day, otherwise they will not be able to walk or stand up after returning back to Earth.
Getting a haircut in zero gravity requires a vacuum tube to remove floating hair
Sleeping
Sleeping in weightlessness is extremely awkward. Astronauts are allotted eight hours a day for sleep and are issued sleeping masks and earplugs to cope with the constant machine noise and light. They must also strap themselves down to walls, seats, or sleeping bags, to avoid floating around and bumping into equipment.
Bathing
Unlike Earth, there are no germs in space shuttles and stations other than the ones hitching a ride on the astronauts' bodies. However, crew members are still required to bath daily to maintain hygiene. This is accomplished through sponge bathing using one washcloth for washing and one for rinsing. Moisture and soap scud remains on skin and must be suctioned out. When brushing teeth, a specific type of edible toothpaste is used; it can be swallowed or suctioned.
Housing
Three decks make up the space shuttle: the flight deck, middeck or living quarters, and the life support and housekeeping deck. The middeck measures approximately 13 feet long 9 to 12 feet wide, consolidating all of the crew's living activities such as eating, bathing, and sleeping. The middeck houses the toilet, washbasin, oven, lockers, and bunk beds. Space stations have slightly more space, although more space is taken up by experiments.
Consuming food requires care to avoid small particles from going awry
Working
Astronauts work sixteen hour days and are on call for twenty-fours given the vast amount of work needed to be completed. The average flight time of a space shuttle is two and a half weeks, and during which the crew is responsible for conducting experiments, assembling the station and maintaining the shuttle, as well as repairing satellites.
The expeditions aboard space stations last between six to nine months, and the crew's primary object is somewhat different than that of a crew aboard a space shuttle. Here, conducting research is of utmost importance and the crew studies bioastronautics, spaceflight, space biology, physical and Earth sciences, along with space product development.
By Maximilian Teodorescu
Research paper provided by NASA.gov. For more information, download the research paper below.
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