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The answer to this week's "Never Stop Asking Why" comes from the museum's Evaluation Research Coordinator, Claire Thoma. When Claire's not busy evaluating programs, she's also a science educator and was previously the museum's NASA Fellow for Flight Adventures. Fun fact: Claire has a degree in astronomy!
The International Space Station doesn't have bunk beds for the astronauts, so where do they sleep?
There is no gravity in outer space, so astronauts don’t need normal beds because they can sleep in any direction they want! But it isn’t very comfortable to try to fall asleep while floating around (and bumping into machines and other astronauts).
Each astronaut has a sleeping bag that attaches to the floor, wall, or ceiling and zips up to keep them warm and in one place. When you fall asleep tonight, imagine what it would be like to sleep on the ceiling instead!
Watch this video from NASA to see an astronaut on the International Space Station show off his sleeping bag.
Want to see more space-related WHY's? Learn why astronauts can't whistle in space!
