Hi, I'm Trish, Programs Coordinator at the Space Centre.

When we chat with kids about what living in space is like for astronauts, we always say it’s a lot like going camping. When camping, the regular activities you do—eating, sleeping, even going to the bathroom—are a little different than you would normally do, and you need to take things with you to live. Living in space is like a type of camping where you travel far from home and must take everything with you when you go...absolutely everything. Living in space requires that you have food, air, and water, and astronauts need to take those supplies with them when they blast off from Earth. 

We are lucky that we don’t need to take air with us when we go camping. Air is important for astronauts because there isn’t any in space! Astronauts need about 2.6 kilograms of air a day while on the International Space Station (ISS), and when they do a spacewalk they must take their air with them. Astronauts don’t bring all the air with them when they leave Earth. Some of the air is recycled on the ISS with special oxygen scrubbers. Water is also recycled on the ISS. Astronaut’s wastewater such as urine, sweat, and even moisture from their breath, is captured, and then impurities and contaminants are filtered out, and the water is used again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food you take camping is not all that different from food astronauts eat in space. Which foods look familiar in this picture of astronauts making pizza?

Much like planning your menu for a camping trip, astronauts plan their menus for their time on the ISS. Using this NASA webpage plan your three astronaut meals for a day in space.
 
While the food you eat in space isn’t all that different, the way you can eat it is. Imagine eating in a micro gravity environment where everything floats. It looks like a lot of fun. Watch this video of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield preparing food in space. 

Sleeping and going to the bathroom in space is very different from how you would do it camping. On the ISS astronauts sleep in something like a sleeping bag but it is attached to a wall so they don’t float into something. Watch this video of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield shows how astronauts sleep in space.

Going to the bathroom in space is a question we often get, and the uniqueness of microgravity does pose some challenges that we don’t face going to the bathroom here on Earth. In space the toilets are more like a vacuum cleaner and astronauts float into the bathroom and use a seat belt to secure themselves to the toilet seat. The vacuum is turned on and the waste is removed. Watch this short video that answers the question, how do astronauts go to the bathroom in space?

Liquid waste is recycled using the water filtration system we talked about earlier and solid waste is packed with other solid garbage and sent back towards Earth where it burns up in the atmosphere on re-entry.  

If you have a chance to go camping this summer have a look at this website to see if the ISS will be visible from your campsite and think about how much more challenging it would be if you were camping in space on the International Space Station. 

I hope this has inspired you to discover more about living in space. We’ve pulled together a couple of playlists with some of our favourite web resources about the International Space Station and living in space.
 
Go through the playlist at your own pace. Here’s how we suggest you start: