40+ Weird Details About Astronauts' Everyday Lives in Space

This article appeared in thedaddest.com and has been published here with permission.

Artificiality to Stay Sane

Astronauts on the International Space Station experience 15 dawns within 24 hours, so normal time schedules of the sun rising and setting don't work in space. While it may only seem normal to make of a day what you wish it to be like, human bodies are chained to their biological rhythms.

We need 24 hours a day. Astronauts would become permanently disoriented and sluggish without the help of external factors. The conditions are closely controlled by lights and alarms so astronauts can go to sleep and wake up normally.

Lots of Space Movies

A favorite pastime of astronauts in space is to watch movies. The station stocks a wide array of videos including films of various genres - like comedies, fantasies, rom-coms, and much more. However, according to reports, movies based on government lawbreakers are missing.

There is an abundance of films on space and astronauts love to debate on which sci-fi is the best. Dr. Kjell Lindgren and Scott Kelly recommend Apollo 13 for its characters, as well as Gravity for its realistic portrayal of the ISS.

Rehearsing the Walk

Spacewalking seems extremely cool and glamorous from far away, and in all honesty, it is. Astronauts often term EVAs - short for Extravehicular Activities (or spacewalks) - as some of the most memorable moments of their visit to space.

However, spacewalks are as dangerous as they are exciting. Even before entering the ISS, space workers must practice on a life-size model under a huge tank of water. You can't simply throw your spacesuit on and take a walk outside once you're on board. Even something as minor as suiting up requires a 100-page checklist!

Fruits and Boosting Morale

Living in a tiny, cramped space every day can start to get incredibly monotonous after a few months, even when you're literally floating in space. To keep the environment light, astronauts gather and try to make the best of their time.

With every new arrival, fresh fruit is given to the International Space Station for the whole team to unpack and enjoy. Although the gathering of astronauts and cosmonauts is hard, ISS prioritizes it. Group meals and watching movies have been successful in creating bonds and lifting spirits.

Everyone Gets Personalized Nozzles

Astronauts' excreta have to go somewhere. Early Moon missions utilized tubes, diapers, and bags to collect human waste, but that wasn't ideal. To this day, the toilet on the ISS is a piece of delicate and pricey machinery. A personal nozzle is attached to a suction pipe that sucks the urine away before turning it back into the water for the astronauts to use.

Number-two is trickier and asks for special camera-assisted training, sometimes hand-packing feces if they're unlucky. The poop is launched on a course and burns up in Earth's atmosphere.