Most of us think at some point about living in a space station or craft, whether it’s the USS Enterprise or the International Space Station.  Would you live in space given the opportunity?

Many people base their ideas of living in space on science fiction works such as Star Trek, Star Wars, and those incredible Alien movies. They are shocked when they see the inside of a real, functioning space craft like the Apollo 11.  I wonder how many Soyuz crafts you could fit on the bridge of the Enterprise?  Sure, we know there’s a difference between “real life” and “science fiction”, but it’s surprising how many people still believe astronauts have their own private rooms.  Since we’ve had space stations, there have been three astronauts to stay in space for over a year at a stretch, all aboard the Mir.  To give you some perspective, look at this image of the Atlantis docked to Mir:

NASA - Atlantis docked with Mir

Amazing.  There you would be, living in a short gopher hole stuffed with equipment and supplies.  Remember, if they ran out of something, they couldn’t go to the local department store and pick it up.

A lot of strange things happen to a person in space, too.  It’s way beyond certain that you will not survive in space unprotected.  We lost a cosmonaut in a decompression accident in 1971, and we almost lost an astronaut during some NASA tests with near-vacuum conditions in 1965 when his suit developed a leak.  You can research that one, but he remained conscious for 14 seconds, and his last sensation was of the saliva on his tongue boiling (that’s not due to heat; that’s related to lack of pressure).

Even in a protected environment, you would have to deal with a huge problem we haven’t solved as yet; microgravity.  The human body is designed to operate very well in a gravity environment.  In fact, we require it.  Now obviously you aren’t going to run into major problems immediately, although you might not be very comfortable at first.

Over half of all astronauts spend the first couple of days in space nauseated, dizzy, and feeling like they are upside down.  Your body has certain expectations of what the environment is going to look and feel like.  For millions of years, everything was just dandy, until suddenly (with no warning) your big fat brain decides to take your body into space.  Your body will retaliate.  Also, about 60% of your body is water.  Within minutes of entering microgravity most of that water is up around your sinuses.  And it stays there, until you return to gravity.

Those are the fun effects.  Hang around in microgravity long enough, and you start losing bone and muscle mass.  When you lose bone mass, the calcium released into your blood settles in your soft body tissues, most prominently the kidneys.  Muscles not only atrophy (stop working altogether), the type of muscle fibers prominent in the tissue changes.  When you return to gravity, you have a hard time even breathing, much less moving around.  We’re not sure if the body ever fully recovers.  If all that wasn’t enough, your annual radiation dose in low-Earth orbit is ten times that on Earth.  That’s a serious cancer risk.

Those are just the highlights of the physical effects.  We didn’t hit on the psychological problems; the boredom, stress, anxiety, loneliness, lack of privacy, messed up sleep cycles, insomnia, depression… why are we even trying to go into space?  I’m not sure, but I think it has something to do with the need to know, the need to explore.  Also, there’s just something in human nature that MUST push a button if it’s there.  We want to go faster, higher, and further.  We want to see how hot something can get, how cold it can get, how hard it can be pushed; and then push it a little harder.

We want to see what’s over the horizon.