There is no doubt that life in space is much more complicated than on Earth, or at least that is what some astronauts have shown us, who share how difficult some task that is normally simple can be.
However, there are some activities that are more complicated than others, such as bathing in a space station or even on board a moving ship. That is why for some it is a great challenge and the question arises, how do astronauts shower in space?
It makes sense that hot water is scarce in space, but why is it important gravity to bathe? Now imagine what it would be like to take a shower without Earth’s gravity, pulling water down from the showerhead, across your soapy body, and into the drain.
Gravity on the International Space Station is approximately 90 percent gravity on the surface of the Earth (it’s called microgravity), so engineers have had to be smart to keep astronauts clean.
How they bathe in space
In the early days of NASA, astronauts on the Gemini and Apollo missions had very few options. They could take a sponge bath with a towel, soap and water, but water was very limited in those tiny capsules.
In addition, these guys didn’t change their clothes very often either. When astronauts returned to Earth in the decade of 1960, surely they missed taking a good shower with hot water.
When the Skylab space station was in orbit, they previously devised a kind of “artificial rain”. The astronauts entered a collapsed tube and tethered their feet to the “bottom” (the top and bottom hardly matter in microgravity).
Then they pulled the tube around them and clamped it at the “top”. They smeared liquid soap everywhere and then rinsed it off with just 12 cups (2.8 liters) of pressurized water that came through a hose and a shower head inside the tube.
Then they had to dry themselves with a towel and suck up every drop of water before it entered the equipment and caused a short circuit. From start to finish, the process took two hours, so many astronauts simply avoided it.
During the Space Shuttle era, astronauts used the sponge bath system, as did the Gemini and Apollo crews.
However, the International Space Station that orbits the Earth today has improved the situation of “artificial rain”. All the water is supplied in sachets, and what comes in contact with your skin sticks in droplets. To clean, the astronauts use soap without rinsing, in addition to a little water from a bag and shampoo to clean themselves.
As in Skylab, the water they use has to be captured with a towel . Any remaining moisture is captured by the Life Support and Environmental Control System and recycled.
The International Space Station system recovers every drop of water, from showering to breathing to urine, then cleans and reuses it.
So they wash their hair in space
For astronaut Karen Nyberg, washing and brushing your teeth is a ritual: everything is done in antigravity.
Recording from the International Space Station, Nyberg gave a video tour of his bathroom and a tutorial on how to shower in space.
Her artificial bathroom, which she calls “hygiene corner”, comes fully equipped with toothbrushes, toothpaste and towels. “They probably don’t look much different than the hygiene products in your bathroom,” she said. But it lacks some standard elements of toilets on the ground.
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