Keeping yourself clean & healthy

In the early days of space travel, you just stayed dirty, and were probably pretty smelly by the time you came back to earth! Modern space travelers can have sponge baths while in space. They can get warm water from the water dispensing system. Because of weightlessness, water droplets would float about in the cabin. This could be not only a nuisance but also be dangerous. To prevent this from happening, an airflow system blows waste water into the orbiter's waste collection system, where the waste water is sealed in plastic watertight bags. When washing their hair they must use a dry shampoo so that bubbles don't fly throughout the craft. They must then clean off the shampoo from their hair using a dry towel.

Whiskers cut off in shaving and floating about weightlessly in a cabin could be a nuisance and foul up equipment. This problem is avoided by using shaving cream and a safety razor and cleaning off the face with a disposable towel. Also available is a wind-up shaver that works like an electric razor and sucks cut whiskers with a little vacuum cleaner. Water doesn't flow in a weightless environment, so washing hands is not as simple as on Earth where all that's needed is a turn of the tap. Because of this, space shuttles do not have sinks. When astronauts want to clean themselves, they must dab their bodies with towels soaked with alcohol or detergent. It's the same when cleaning teeth. Although tooth powder makes the cleaning process the same as that on Earth, it's not possible for the astronauts to wash their mouths out or gargle as they would back home. They can either swallow the toothpaste or wipe it away with a towel.

Many of the problems of going into space have been solved. But the effects of weightlessness on the human body are still not completely understood. Some minerals are lost from bones, and muscles atrophy when not exercised. It is very important that astronauts do regular physical exercise while they are in a weightless environment, or they are very weak by the time they return to earth. They haven't been using their legs to walk around because they float, so often they use an exercise bike in space.