How astronauts sleep, eat and poop, in Space?
The life of astronauts in the space is so challenging and tough at the same time. If you wonder how they sleep, eat, and poop in the space, let us find out here:
How astronauts sleep in space?
To what extent do weightlessness and floating in the air influence the way astronauts rest? Have you ever stopped to think about this issue?
For a good rest on the space station, the first step is to put yourself in a sleeping bag, which keeps both legs and arms tight, preventing accidents. The most important thing is that the sleeping bag is stuck somewhere. Be it the wall, the floor, or the ceiling.
Noise is also a problem. To avoid noise, some astronauts wear small earplugs. He adds that the space station crew needs to be well-rested, as it performs extremely important jobs during that short period that is in space.
How do astronauts eat in space?
They eat dehydrated foods by refrigeration, so that they do not take up space and, at the same time are kept in good condition. They just have to add water and they are ready to eat.
Inside the spaceship, eating is quite difficult due to weightlessness, but drinking is even more difficult. They cannot do it with an open glass as the liquid would form drops and bubbles that would float, wetting everything, and therefore they have to drink from plastic bags with a small hole that they insert into the mouth.
The food is also already cut into small pieces so that it does not form crumbs that would dirty the air of the ship.
In the long trips planned for the future, the furniture will be perfected and plants can even be taken so that the astronauts can take care of them and obtain fresh food.
How do astronauts “poop” in space?
You may never have stopped to think about it, or you are probably curious. But astronauts need to urinate or defecate during missions just like any human being.
Astronauts on space missions need (and should) use the bathroom, as we all do on land. As there is no gravity, urine and faeces do not "fall" into the toilet, as they do on land. But then how do astronauts do it?
Space bathrooms are adapted to suck the urine and faeces of astronauts. When it comes to urine, there is a coupler for the female and male genitalia.
In the case of man, he uses a cone-shaped structure that is connected to a tube, connected to a sucker. The urine expelled by the astronaut is then sucked into a container. For women, the system is the same, only changing the shape of the coupler, which in this case is rectangular to ensure better contact. The urine can then be disposed of in space or recycled to become drinking water for use in the mission.
These wastes can, in certain studies related to human physiology in space, be brought to Earth for analysis. In these cases, they are not eliminated in space.