Sanitation

Eating utensils are cleaned with wet wipes. The difference between orbiter wet wipes and those used on Earth is that the orbiter's contain a strong disinfectant.

Astronaut Charlie Precourt shampoos his hair with a rinseless shampoo that was originally developed for hospital patients who were unable to take a shower.

Sanitation is more important in the confines of the orbiter than on Earth. Space studies have shown the population of some microbes can increase extraordinarily in a confined weightless area such as a spacecraft cabin. This could potentially spread illness to everyone on board. As a result, not only eating components but also the dining area, the toilet, and sleeping areas are regularly cleaned. Since there are no washing machines in space, trousers (changed weekly), socks, shirts, and underwear (changed every 2 days) are sealed in airtight plastic bags after being worn. Garbage and trash also are sealed in plastic bags.

A favorite question of people interested in space is how the astronauts took care of digestive elimination. The orbiter travelers use a toilet very much the same as one on Earth. Air flow directs waste to the bottom of the toilet, substituting for gravity. Waste goes directly into a sealed container where it is processed and stored.

Some of the waste may be used for post-flight laboratory analyses. Such analyses have told doctors which minerals are lost excessively in space and have helped to increase their understanding of body functions.

Orbiter travelers have facilities and supplies available for sponge baths while in space. They can obtain water from the water dispensing system. Water temperature can be set at any comfortable level from 18 to 35 degrees Celsius (65 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit).

Because of weightlessness, water droplets would float about in the cabin. This could be not only a nuisance but also potentially hazardous to equipment and crew. To prevent this from happening, an airflow system directs waste water into the orbiter's waste collection system, where the waste water is sealed in plastic watertight bags.

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 conventional 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 contains a vacuum device to prevent the escape of cut whiskers.

The
McArthur

Astronaut William McArthur has created a special sandwich to eat for breakfast.

On board the Space Shuttle, tortillas are used instead of bread, which would be moldy after a few days and produces lots of floating crumbs.

Packed into nitrogen-containing bags, tortillas can be stowed for up to six months and therefore preferred by NASA's food supply laboratory.

For his space-sandwich, McArthur used a sausage patty, scrambled eggs and cheese spread between two floating tortillas. He described the sandwich as quite tasty and being a convenient way to eat several menu items at one time.  It has become a favorite with astronauts.