Краткий пересказAstronauts working on the giant International Space Station (ISS) live a long way from home. The ISS is situated three hundred and sixty kilometres above the surface of Earth. That may seem an impressive distance but the speed at which astronauts travel through space is even more amazing. Flying through dark, airless space at almost thirty thousand kilometres an hour is hard to imagine. It’s fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon and back in one day! Living in zero gravity means there are no nice hot showers in the morning; the water droplets would simply float away. Instead, astronauts use a vacuum hose to wash with. They don’t have a sink to wash their hair in, so they use a no-rinse shampoo which you just comb through the hair. After brushing their teeth, there’s nowhere to spit out the toothpaste; the astronauts simply swallow it! Doing household chores on the ISS is part of an astronaut’s daily routine. As dangerous bacteria grow quickly in zero gravity, the astronauts clean the whole station every day, which is about the size of a football pitch! There is one chore they do escape on board, though. There’s no washing-up after meals. The astronauts put their dirty dishes into plastic bags and send them back to Earth. When it comes to sleeping in space, astronauts just strap themselves into a sleeping bag on the wall. That’s to avoid bumping into any computer controls. It’s a truly relaxing experience because you don’t need a pillow or mattress, so nothing presses against the skin. It’s important to cover the eyes, however, to block out the light of the sun, as the sun rises and sets every 45 minutes when you are orbiting Earth. When muscles don’t have to work against gravity as they do here on Earth, they go soft. So the residents of the ISS spend two hours a day working out. They have all the usual machines you would expect – exercise bikes, rowing machines, treadmills. But the lack of gravity means that heavyweights don’t feel heavy at all. Astronauts use specially designed weightlifting equipment to ensure they get a proper workout. At mealtimes, astronauts ‘post’ food packages into a special tray and then strap the tray to their legs. Otherwise, the meal would float away! Salt and pepper come in liquid form. If astronauts seasoned their food in the normal way, the particles could float into air vents or equipment and cause damage. There are ovens to heat up meals, but no fridges in space. Food has to be specially stored to keep it fresh. When astronauts aren’t doing experiments or repairing equipment, they take time out to do other things, just like the rest of us. Reading books, watching films and sending emails to people back home are all popular activities. But one of their favourite activities is photography; most of all, astronauts like to stare out of the window and take pictures of their real home, Earth!

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