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Mary Helen Berg, for USA TODAY NASA Special Edition 3:45 p.m. EDT October 2, 2015

NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren corrals the supply of fresh fruit that arrived August 25, 2015 on the Kounotori 5 H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-5.) Visiting cargo ships often carry a small cache of fresh food for crew members aboard the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA(Photo: NASA)

Astronauts aboard the international Space Station (ISS) live a life experienced by only 218 people in the world. Though part of their daily routine is familiar to all of us, even mundane tasks become extraordinary when your home is a high-tech microgravity lab hurtling through space at 5 miles per second, 250 miles above your home planet.

Orbiting Outhouse

For instance, imagine trying to do your business in zero gravity and floating away from the throne. Or worse.

You do occasionally get what we call a brown trout, where the fish get away and you have to corral them with a wet wipe and put them back where they need to go, revealed Barry Butch Wilmore, who served as ISS commander from November 2014 to March 2015.

The ISS toilet is much like a standard commode with a lid and seat, but since theres no gravity, crewmembers use various restraints and handles to keep themselves in the correct position.

Astronauts use a waste collection system, which includes a hose device to vacuum urine away from the body and keep solid waste in place as it is deposited into an individual plastic bag in the toilet can. Liquid waste is filtered, purified and recycled for use as drinking water.

NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Scott Kelly take their first bites of red romaine lettuce that was grown on the International Space Station.(Photo: NASA)

Soups On

Sit-down dinners are for earthlings.

Meals on the ISS look more like space take-out, and dining is designed so feasts dont float away. Astronauts gather for meals but usually hover near each other and dip long-handled spoons into individually portioned pouches of pre-made food, Wilmore said.

Cooking consists of heating food packets in a briefcase-like apparatus fitted with a hot plate and springs to hold the package in place. The station also stocks dehydrated meals that are lighter to ship and stay preserved longer than military-style Meals Ready to Eat (MREs). Salt and pepper in liquid form help spice things up.

You can eat anything with the right condiments, said Wilmore, a fan of ISS meatloaf and chicken with peanut sauce.

An astronauts diet must prevent weight loss, which can damage bones and muscles and cause cardiovascular stress and other health complications, explained Scott Smith, lead scientist in the Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Crewmembers also take vitamin D supplements to offset months without sunlight and drink plenty of water to compensate for the stations dry environment, Smith said.

Since 2009, the ISS has processed condensation from the stations air and recycled astronauts urine to provide drinking water.

It is the best water I have ever tasted, Wilmore claimed. Its fantastic.

International Space Station Expedition 42 Commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore shows off a ratchet made with a 3-D printer aboard the vessel.(Photo: NASA)

Weightless Workout

Astronauts on the ISS barely break a sweat performing triple flips mid-air, but the weightless environment requires strenuous daily workouts to stay strong.

Without gravity to provide resistance, astronauts risk losing endurance, strength, power, coordination, balance and agility. Weakness and bone loss are equivalent to being in bed for six months, said Mark Guilliams, a NASA strength, conditioning and rehabilitation specialist.

Astronauts lose 1 percent to 2 percent of their bone mass during flight and can lose more than 10 percent of muscle strength during a six-month space station expedition.

To counteract these side effects, crewmembers follow strength training and cardiovascular protocols two hours a day, six days a week.

Their gym consists of three machines scattered amid the stations scientific experiments: a treadmill fitted with a harness and bungee cords to keep the user in place; a stationary bicycle that can be ridden without a seat or handlebars; and a type of weight resistance machine called the aRED, or advanced Resistive Exercise Device.

Astronaut Sunita Williams shook up her workout by running the Boston Marathon on the ISS treadmill in 2007 (unofficial time: 4:24) and completing the first space triathlon in 2012 (unofficial time: 1:48:33), using all three exercise devices to simulate the race.

Goodnight Moon

Sweet dreams can be elusive, especially when your head floats above your pillow and the sun rises every 45 minutes.

Astronauts often suffer insomnia as they adjust to strange light cycles, body fluid shifts and zero gravity, said Dr. Smith Johnston, who leads NASAs fatigue management program at the Johnson Space Center.

ISS astronauts sleep in small pods about the size of a phone booth that contain a sleeping bag and personal belongings. At bedtime, they crawl into their bag and float with their hands and head bobbing.

Sleep deprivation is a serious health concern. ISS astronauts average only about six hours of sleep even fewer during busy periods, such as when the shuttle docks, Johnston said.

Next year, NASA plans to replace the stations fluorescent lights with LEDs programmed to produce light that will help the astronauts bodies differentiate day from night.

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Astronauts Adapt to Life on Board the Space Station

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A Russian Progress cargo ship carrying 3.1 tons of supplies and equipment, visible at left, moves in for docking at the aft port of the International Space Station's Zvezda command module. Visible in the foreground are another Progress supply ship and the Soyuz TMA-17M crew ferry craft.

NASA TV

An automated Russian Progress supply ship docked at the International Space Station Thursday evening six hours after launch from Kazakhstan, bringing 3.1 tons of supplies and equipment to the outpost after a problem-free rendezvous.

"A flawless journey of six hours three minutes for the Progress 61 cargo craft," reported Rob Navias, NASA's mission control commentator. "All the pre-programmed engine firings to increase its altitude and to begin the journey to catch up to the International Space Station went by the book, with no issues whatsoever."

The mission began at 12:49:40 p.m. EDT (GMT-4; 10:49 p.m. local time) when the cargo ship's Soyuz booster roared to life and climbed away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, two minutes after the space station passed overhead.

Lighting up the night sky, the rocket quickly arced away to the east, flying directly into the plane of the station's orbit to kick off a four-orbit rendezvous.

Just under nine minutes after liftoff, the Progress M-29M/61P spacecraft separated from the booster's upper stage and a few seconds after that, it's two solar panels and navigation antennas unfolded and locked in place as planned.

The Progress M-29M/61P cargo ship takes off atop a Soyuz booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

NASA TV

Cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko were standing by at a work station inside Zvezda, ready to take over by remote control if necessary. But there were no problems, and the cargo craft moved in for docking as planned at 6:52 p.m. as the two spacecraft sailed 252 miles above the north Atlantic Ocean.

The M-29M/61P vehicle is a welcome addition to the station, bringing 6,373 pounds of equipment and supplies to the lab complex: 1,940 pounds of propellant, 926 pounds of water, 110 pounds of oxygen and 3,397 pounds of dry cargo, including spare parts, crew supplies and other gear.

The station's six-man crew -- Expedition 45 commander Scott Kelly, cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, NASA astronaut Kjell Lindren, Volkov and Kononenko -- plan to open hatches and start unloading the spacecraft Friday.

NASA and its partners like to maintain a six-month reserve of critical supplies aboard the lab complex to protect against the possibility of a launch failure or some other mishap that might disrupt the supply train.

In a dramatic reversal of fortune, a Progress supply ship was lost in a launch failure last April followed by a SpaceX resupply mishap in June. Those back-to-back failures, along with the loss of an Orbital Science Cygnus cargo ship late last year, reduced the station's reserves to well under four months.

But NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, appear to be well on the road to recovery.

Since the SpaceX failure in June, the Russians successfully launched a Progress mission in July and Japan sent up its fifth HTV cargo ship in August. With the arrival of the M-29M/61P supply craft, another Progress scheduled for launch Nov. 21 and an Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo ship set for launch Dec. 3, the station's reserves should be back to near-normal levels by the end of the year.

The next SpaceX station resupply mission is targeted for launch Jan. 3.

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Soon it'll be possible to (almost) indulge this fantasy without leaving Earth.

A hotel in Zurich, Switzerland, has just unveiled a new suite kitted out to look like the inside of a space station.

Grand Kameha's Space Suite comes equipped with a "zero gravity" bed -- built to look like it's floating above the ground -- and steam bath designed to simulate a view into the universe.

With Ridley Scott's "The Martian" hitting cinemas this month, It could be an ideal escape for someone inspired to seek interstellar isolation.

The suite was designed by German artist Michael Najjar, who for the last three years has been training for a civilian journey to space on board Virgin Galactic, and often uses it as inspiration for his work.

However, those who simply seek a restful place to lay their head at the end of the day might want to stay away.

"The intention was not at all to create a comfortable bedroom," says Najjar.

"It's more about creating an immersive environment which makes the hotel guest feel like living on a space station."

The "zero gravity" bed is designed to appear as if it is floating.

The artist was allowed to let his imagination run riot when designing the room, with the only caveat being that it had to have a bed and a toilet.

It features a two-screen video installation visualizing space debris in Earth's orbit, spotlights inspired by rocket engines, and a shelf shaped like a space glove to hold phones or key cards. The room also has a library of books, audiobooks and films related to space travel, with an automated female voice inspired by John Carpenter's science fiction film "Dark Star" welcoming the guests.

"They will forget that they are staying in a hotel room -- they will feel like being on board a space station," says Najjar.

While in most hotels guests can take a pick of rolling news channels, the Space Suite gets a live stream from the International Space Station and a direct link to NASA TV.

"Space is the final frontier for humankind," says Najjar. ''Current developments in space travel and exploration will have a huge impact on our life on earth in the future. One day we will see hotels floating in space. What we did here is a space station floating in a hotel."

With a price tag of nearly $2,000 a night and an unorthodox concept, who is the Space Suite designed to appeal to?

"A guest who is art loving, a collector, a visitor of Art Basel or someone who would like to have an overall art experience," says Carsten K. Rath, CEO of Kameha.

Patrons will also get to spend an hour in an Airbus A320 flight simulator and try body flying, a training technique used by skydivers which sees them suspended in a vertical wind tunnel.

And if they're curious to meet the man behind the design, they'll be given an opportunity to visit Michael Najjar's Berlin studio and see him there.

Kameha Grand Zurich offers the galaxy getaway two-night package from 1845 CHF ($1,890) per night. This includes bed and breakfast accommodation in the space suite, space amenities on arrival, 1.5 hours body flying /1 hour flight simulation in an A320, a signed book of Michael Najjar's work, a designer art gift, and an invitation to meet Najjar in his Berlin studio.

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An unmanned Russian cargo ship docked with the International Space Station (ISS) in a record time, officials said Thursday, taking just under six hours from launch to complete the journey.

Russia said an unmanned supply ship set for the International Space Station will fall back to Earth Friday and burn up in the atmosphere, after the spacecraft suffered a communications failure.

A Russian booster rocket on Friday successfully launched an unmanned cargo ship to the International Space Station, whose crew is anxiously awaiting it after the successive failures of two previous supply missions.

A Soyuz space capsule carrying a Russian, an American and a Japanese docked smoothly Thursday with the International Space Station.

Russia on Monday successfully launched a Proton rocket, carrying a Russian telecoms satellite, from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in the second successful launch since the disastrous loss of a Mexican satellite in ...

Russia successfully launched an unmanned cargo spaceship bound for the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday night, redeeming itself after a string of failures that cast a shadow on its space programme.

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Russian supply ship docks at space station

The space suite at this hotel in Zrich was designed with all the classic space films in mind.

By Jessica Plautz2015-10-01 19:55:31 UTC

A hotel in Switzerland is capitalizing on our collective space craze.

The Grand Kameha Zrich hotel is offering guests the opportunity to stay in a space suite a space station-inspired accommodation with an elaborate astronaut motif for $2,000 a night.

German artist Michael Najjar designed the suite for the Grand Kameha.

Najjar hopes to be the first contemporary artist in space he has gone through cosmonaut training in Russia, spending the past three years preparing to become one of Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic Pioneer Astronauts.

"The idea behind this is to immerse guests or crew members in the atmosphere of a space station," the hotel said in a statement, "tapping into various elements of perception to enliven the experience."

While the suite is indeed space-y, it has little in common with the space station. For one thing, the hotel has not done away with gravity but that's nitpicking.

Instead, the suite is more of a sci-fi recreation of a luxurious future in space, even though Najjar's purpose was art and not comfort.

"The intention was not at all to create a comfortable bedroom," he told CNN.

Comfortable or not, here's a look at the suite along with the reality at the International Space Station (ISS).

The "zero gravity" bed at the Grand Kameha is designed to look as though it's floating. Unfortunately, it won't give you the feeling of being at zero gravity. Unlike astronaut Scott Kelly's bed on the ISS, which is designed to hold him to it while he catches some zzzzs.

An astronaut's glove is coming out of the wall in the space suite. In space, the gloves have a slightly different purpose than cellphone holder.

The spacious (get it) living room at the Grand Kameha is about as different from ISS as you can get. The hotel is outfitting the suite with an Apple TV; in space, the astronauts recently crowded around a screen to watch The Martian before it was out in theaters.

The overhead lights are meant to mimic jet engines luckily they only emit about 40 watts, though.

Najjar took his inspiration from several different movies, including Dark Star and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The flair for the dramatic is clear in the design, and will likely be a hit with (well to do) travelers who are eager for Virgin Galactic to become a reality.

But if you want a real space experience, the Grand Kameha is not your best bet.

"For [about the cost of] two nights in that hotel suite, you could just go on a zero-gravity parabolic flight," according to Mashable's space reporter Miriam Kramer. (A weightless flight with Zero G is $4,950 + tax.)

For a tour of the inside of the real ISS, check out this video:

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