Life In Space

I am still trying to figure out which of my clothing and crew positions to leave out and how to stow them in my sleep quarters. All I have is a chest of drawers to keep my clothes in, and my private space is about the size of a closet. It's really hard to describe life in space but I have given it some thought as I went about my work here. If you want to visualize everything, try to imagine a place where you are unable to set things down, because everything just floats off. Nothing is stable. Everything you set down on Earth will stay put thanks to the force of gravity, but that's not the case in space, because we are far away from large masses such as planets and moons, so everything feels weightless since we're not affected by gravity as much. My sleeping bag is tied down to the wall. Whenever I open my container, my clothes try to come out as if they're burglars attempted to break away from jail. I need to be cautious or else I will lose my personal items.

Food: Food is another major issue that has discussed. The food we have here on the space shuttle have a lot of requirements - it must last for long periods of time without refrigeration, it must have the appropriate nutritional value, it must be somewhat appealing and tasty, and must be packaged in such a way that it can be consumed in microgravity without making a mess. I won't complain about the food here, but must say that eating here can get a little tricky at times because you need to make sure your food is secure in your hands. Some of the food get dehydrated and must be re-hydrated so it can be consumed. I eat my food cold because I don't want to go through the hassle of heating it up. 

Gravity: Every object in space exerts a gravitational pull on every other. We are weightless here in space because in acceleration, we feel the force from the spacecraft more than the force of gravity and therefore, we float about the spacecraft. The absence of gravity causes the body’s systems to destabilize. After a week or two in space, our systems will not be functioning properly. This is one of the many challenges that we may face in space. Definitely something to watch out for.

Oxygen: There is no air to breathe in space, and we need oxygen to survive. The absence of oxygen is a major problem because our oxygen supply is quite limited. If we were to get “lost” out here, it would mean certain death (although that's very unlikely). Another reason why the absence of oxygen is problematic is because the air pressure in space allows water to boil at body temperature. We can easily overcome this problem by not going outside the habitat without a leak-tight suit on.

Water: Water is in gaseous form in space because the temperature and pressure conditions are not suitable for it to be in liquid form. We have our own water supplies.

Light: The sun shines bright in space, however, there is no air for the light to bounce off of in, so everything looks black. We have our own light source in the space shuttle.

Temperature: Space is not cold; it is a good insulator with a radiation temperature of approximately 3000 degrees Celsius.

Radiation: We always experience the omnipresent problem of radiation. It causes defects to arise in our DNA, which may lead to or cause cancer and other fatal diseases. In order to counter this problem, we enforced enough shielding above and around us and by taking the correct medication to prevent those diseases.

Life here in space is indeed "different" but it's entertaining too.. well.. to an extent. :)