Everyday Activities in Zero Gravity

KALYN HOPKINS, NATIONAL SOCIETY OF BLACK ENGINEERS AEROSPACE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

My project was focused on doing activities that we typically do on Earth in a zero-gravity environment. My first activity was eating non-freeze-dried food—I chose to try fruit snacks. The most difficult part of the task was opening the actual fruit snack package. I don’t believe this was due to the missing gravity because when I tried to do it again with gravity I had the same issue, so I believe it was the package design. Eating my food wasn’t too difficult. I just had to make sure to grab one fruit snack at a time so I wouldn’t lose any (I definitely lost a few fruit snacks).

My next task was to try to read and write. Reading was a challenge as it was very hard to focus on the words and navigate in microgravity at the same time. Writing wasn’t too difficult, but it wasn’t as neat as my writing in normal gravity.

My last task was to put on and tie my shoe. This task wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I will say by the time I got to this task I had completed about 15 parabolas, so I was more comfortable in zero gravity and navigating my body in the environment, which made this task easier.

Overall, the most difficult thing for me to do was stay in my own space while doing my activities. Being in zero gravity made me more aware of how my body takes up space and how I navigate in space.

Learn More

See yourself in space—Aurelia Institute