A Cosmic Point of View on Practicalities: Habitate – Orbit, Daily Life in Space @ KSEVT, Vitanje, Slovenia |

Fashion designers have been constantly fascinated by the theme of space travelling. The history of fashion features indeed collections, books and exhibitions inspired by cosmic fashion and supermodern wardrobes. Yet there are some key differences between fashion and proper space suits and space travelling gear.

An exhibition entitled "Habitate: Orbit, Daily Life in Space" currently on at the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT, directed by Miha Turšič, co-curator of the exhibit) analyses the problem of space travel from a functional and practical point of view.

Organised in cooperation with the Yuri A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre (GCTC) and the Museum of Cosmonautics from Star City, Russia, "Habitate" includes a series of crucial objects and gadgets for daily life in space that allow cosmonauts at the International Space Station (ISS) to survive in harsh environments. The event features equipment from a period of twenty years as well as historical artefacts brought from space by individual cosmonauts.

The exhibition looks at several issues, including nourishment, hygiene, sleep and maintaining psycho-physical form.

Astronauts living and working on international space stations often highlight in their reports the importance of hygiene and waste management in small and confined space and several solutions regarding showers and toilets were developed throughout the years and during different missions.

Special hygiene towels and sponges were for example made to replace running water; when it comes to brushing their teeth, astronauts usually either swallow the toothpaste or spit it in a towel, and haircuts are performed with the help of a vacuum cleaner-like tube that removes the cut hair (vacuum cleaners are also employed for housekeeping purposes by astronauts on the Mir space station).

Astronauts have to wear special suits during launch and landing and researchers also worked on different kinds of garments and clothes that meet specific requirements: the absence of gravity in orbit affects indeed the sustenance of muscular mass, the density of bone tissue and blood circulation, height also increases as the spine is no longer compressed by gravity.

Clothes must therefore be comfortable and functional and must take into account such physiological changes occurring to the body in space, plus practical issues (see pockets that can be opened and closed with one hand, or removable pockets with Velcro).

Specific suits are also designed to protect the astronaut in case of pressure leaks on the craft and they can even deliver oxygen for breathing if the atmosphere is contaminated (will we have to develop garments capable of delivering oxygen that we will wear also on Earth as the atmosphere becomes increasingly more polluted?).

As the decades passed, different types of spacesuits ideal to walk and carry out researches in open space were designed: some are made with interchangeable parts (upper and lower torso, arms and gloves), others come in one piece and one size, but feature sizing straps within.

All space suits employed to walk in space are made from several layers and include a drink bag that allows the astronaut to drink during long walks, an absorption garment in case the astronaut needs the toilet and a cooling and ventilation system, with water-filled tubes flowing around the body and back to the backpack where the heat is radiated into space.

Astronauts' suits also come with a range of vital accessories: a helmet, gloves, boots, flotation devices, radios, beacons, signal mirrors and flares.

Visitors who have questions about sleeping and doing the laundry in space will find the answers they are looking for: since there is no up or down astronauts can sleep in any orientation, but the exhibition features special sleeping bags which prevent the body from floating around freely during sleep.

There is no washing machine in space so all clothes are discarded after only a few days’ use (though in 2003 ISS astronaut Donald Pettit reused his underwear – plus some toilet paper and a drinking straw used as a water drip – as a substitute for soil to grow tomato and basil seed…).

New researches with nanotechnologies may lead us to developing fabrics that do not need to be washed so much, but that will probably be the subject of another exhibition in future. In the meantime, you can go and see the ehibition on at KSEVT or watch the videos on the YouTube Nasa Channel in which Commander Suni Williams takes us earthlings on a tour of the International Space Station.