LIVING IN SPACE

Once the astronauts lift off of Earth, they are on their own. They have to maintain the shuttle and do regular things like eating in space, working in space, and overall living in space. To do these things you would think that it would be easy but with new challenges like weightlessness, you would be surprised by what they have to do to do normal stuff.

The astronauts have to do chores such as cooking, cleaning, and even taking the trash out. They live in one very, tiny spot and that spot is for sleeping, eating, exercising, working, and taking good care of their personal hygiene. When they sleep they have to be strapped into basically a sleeping bag. They sleep that way so they will not float around and bump anything that might cause malfunction in the shuttle. That would not be good......... at all.

all the members of flight STS 133 they each have one pair of shorts, one t-shirt for excersing, one pair of running shoes, one pair of work pants and a work t-shirt. Each of the seven members were that and that only, they have to make those clothes last for ten days. During launch and entry the crew wears helmets, communications caps, pressure garment, anti-exposure, anti-gravity suit, gloves, and boots. Crew clothes are made for typically men, but sometimes women. It is made for about 95% of men and 5% for women.

In the space shuttle they have an oven to heat their foods such as macaroni, but for other foods like brownies or fruit they do not have to prepare it. The astronaut food used to be in bags and not very tasty but now they can cook things and have better and more fulfilling meals. There are no refeirigerators in the shuttle so they have to make sure nothing they bring will spoil fast. Astronauts have to eat three meals a day because the nutrisionists have to make sure the astronauts are always well and fully energized. Astronauts can choose from fruits, nuts, peanut butter, chicken, beef, seafood, candy, brownies, coffee, tea, orange juice, fruit punches and lemonade. Astronauts can only have certaqin amount of calorie intake per day though. A small woman would have to take 1,900 calories a day while a large man would have to take in 3,200 calories a day.

When you are in space you still have the same hygiene needs as you would on Earth, the astronauts still have to take showers, brush their teeth,brush their hair, shave, and go to the bathroom. When they take showers they use rinsless soaps because they cannot use water sinse it would just float around. Each of the astronauts have their own hygiene box with their tooth brush, hair comb, and their rinseless shampoo, which was originally invented for hospital patients who could not move. To go to the bathroom the astronauts have to sit on the toilet and strap their legs and thieghs in leg restraints so they won;t float around. The toilet acts like a vacuum and sucks all the bad gross stuff away into a water waste tank.