Astronauts: Living in Space
What is it like to live high above Earth?
Hello, space explorers! An astronaut is a person who travels into space.
Some astronauts walked on the Moon long ago. Today, astronauts live and work in a home that goes around Earth.
Let's find out how they eat, sleep, and float!
A Home in Space
The International Space Station is a big spacecraft. It is a home for astronauts, and it is a science lab too.
Many countries worked together to build it. Astronauts put the pieces together, right in space!
Inside, it is bigger than a house with five bedrooms. It has two bathrooms, a gym, and a big window to look at Earth.
People have lived on the space station every day since the year 2000.
The picture is not to scale.
- High up The space station goes around Earth about 250 miles up.
- Super fast It goes all the way around Earth in about 90 minutes.
- Lots of sunrises Astronauts see 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every day!
- Solar power Big solar panels turn sunlight into electricity for the station.
Why Do Astronauts Float?
On Earth, gravity pulls you down. When you jump, you land again.
Gravity pulls on the space station too. But the station zooms forward very, very fast.
So it keeps falling around Earth instead of falling down. The astronauts and everything inside fall together, so they all float!
Floating makes heavy things easy to move. An astronaut can push a big box with just a fingertip.
A Day in Space
Astronauts on the space station are busy! They follow a plan for each day: work, meals, exercise, and sleep.
Up there, the Sun rises and sets 16 times a day! So astronauts go to bed by the clock, not by the Sun.
- Sleeping Astronauts zip into a sleeping bag tied to the wall, so they do not float away.
- Eating Astronauts eat tortillas instead of bread. Tortillas do not make crumbs that float into eyes and machines.
- Exercising Astronauts work out about two hours every day to keep their muscles and bones strong.
- Working Astronauts do science experiments that could not be done on Earth.
Spacesuits
Sometimes astronauts go outside the station. This is called a spacewalk. They go out through a special door called an airlock.
Outside, there is no air to breathe. So astronauts wear a spacesuit. A spacesuit is like a tiny spacecraft that fits around you!
The suit keeps astronauts from getting too hot or too cold. The backpack holds air to breathe. A gold visor protects their eyes from bright sunlight.
Astronaut Self-Guided Quiz
Tap the answer you think is right.
Score: 0 of 6
Try the self-guided quiz at jugami.com/space/astronauts/
For Grown-ups
This page introduces human spaceflight for grades 1 to 3: what an astronaut is, life on the International Space Station, why astronauts float in orbit, how they sleep, eat, exercise and work, and what a spacesuit does.
Try it: hold two small objects, like a ball and a crumpled paper, and drop them together. They fall side by side. NASA explains that astronauts float because the station and everything in it fall together. Ask: would the ball float if you were falling with it?
The page avoids "there is no gravity in space": NASA notes gravity at the station's height is still about 90 percent as strong as on the ground. The station orbits about 200 to 250 miles up at about 17,500 mph, so the page rounds to "about 250 miles". NASA's grades K-4 page compares the inside to a five-bedroom house (its main facts page says six-bedroom); the page follows the K-4 wording. A crew of about seven usually lives aboard.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against NASA:
- NASA: What Is the International Space Station? (Grades K-4)
- NASA: Space Station Facts and Figures
- NASA: What Is Microgravity? (Grades K-4)
- NASA: What Is a Spacesuit? (Grades K-4)
- NASA: Food on the International Space Station (tortillas)
- NASA Curious Universe: A Day in Space (sleeping bag mounted to the wall)
Credits: All pictures on this page are original SVG drawings made for Jugami. They are simplified for young readers and not to scale. Nothing is saved.