In space we can assume that there would be no external organisms such as insects and fungi to break down the body, but we still carry plenty of bacteria with us. Left unchecked, these would rapidly multiply and cause putrefaction of a corpse on board the shuttle or the ISS.

about six months

Several sources have reported that when Astronaut Scott Kelly returned from his year in space, his DNA had changed by 7% from that of his twin, Mark, who had stayed here on Earth.

In space, astronauts lose fluid volume—including up to 22% of their blood volume. Because it has less blood to pump, the heart will atrophy. When gravity is taken away or reduced during space exploration, the blood tends to collect in the upper body instead, resulting in facial edema and other unwelcome side effects.

Without a helmet, and your own personal Earth-like atmosphere surrounding you, you’ll be exposed to the hard vacuum of space. Within a moment, all the air will rush out of your lungs, and then you’ll fall unconscious in about 45 seconds. Starved for oxygen, you’ll die of suffocation in just a couple of minutes.

While no astronauts have admitted having sex in space, plenty of reproduction has been going on. This is because a range of animals from fruit flies to fish – as well as their eggs, sperm and embryos – have been sent into space so we can study how they reproduce.

astronaut Charlie Duke

To use it, astronauts sit around the hole just as we would on Earth, poop, wipe themselves and then put the wipe inside the hole. The same suction system that uses airflow to keep urine from flying out of the funnel also works to keep all of the “deposits” inside the toilet.

Solid waste is collected in a canister as part of the waste hygiene component of the space station’s toilet, and those canisters are disposed of during destructive reentry of cargo spacecraft.

Today, astronauts at the International Space Station poop into a little plate-sized toilet hole, and a fan vacuum-sucks their excrement away. A separate funnel equipped with a fan suctions their pee away.

It is impossible to wash clothes on board the ISS ! The astronauts therefore wear their clothes until they are too dirty and then throw them out. All ISS waste burns up in the atmosphere on re-entry.

The astronauts fasten themselves to the toilet, so that, their body won’t float away. They then use a device similar to a vacuum cleaner to suck any wastes away. Inside the Space Shuttle, there are no wash basins or showers, but the Shuttles do have toilets.