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On April 12, 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in history to go into space.
Since then, there have been more and more female astronauts in space, but how to protect their privacy in space and meet their basic physiological needs is a question worth considering.
So how do female astronauts in space protect their privacy while meeting their physiological needs?
1. China's female astronauts.
The first female astronaut in China was Liu Yang, born in 1978, an Air Force pilot, the first female fighter pilot in the Chinese Air Force, and the third female pilot.
In May 2005, as a J-10 fighter pilot, she successfully completed the world's first J-10 for in-flight refueling.
In July 2008, she was selected as the second batch of astronauts in China, and officially became an astronaut in December 2009.
As one of the first astronauts to enter the Shenzhou spacecraft, she once carried out the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft mission with Jing Haipeng.
During this mission, Liu Yang served as a system expert for the Dream Space Laboratory, responsible for the deployment of space experiment equipment and the operation of the system.
In June 2012, Liu Yang officially became China's first female astronaut to carry out a mission in the Tiangong-1 space laboratory.
During this period, Liu Yang, as an astronaut of Tiangong-1, successfully completed the docking mission of Tiangong-1 together with Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang, and carried out China's first hand-controlled space experiment mission.
Liu Yaping is an Air Force pilot, born in 1979, graduated from the Air Force Aviation University, and is an excellent female pilot in the Air Force.
In 2005, as a J-8 fighter pilot, she successfully carried out the first in-flight refueling mission.
In April 2010, she conducted a six-month ground training as a member of the astronaut pre-post preparation team of Shenzhou 7.
In June 2012, she officially became an astronaut, becoming the second female astronaut in China.
On June 16, 2012, she carried out the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft mission with Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang, and successfully docked with Jing Haipeng on June 18.
After that, Liu Yang and Jing Haipeng conducted a 13-day space experiment mission together.
2. Design of space vehicles and space stations.
The interior design of the space vehicle and the space station must not be overlooked, because in this small space, male and female astronauts will live together, so it is necessary to take into account some problems of male and female astronauts living together.
For example, male and female astronauts cannot tolerate living without privacy when living inside the space station, which is a matter of personal dignity and is especially important for female astronauts.
Therefore, the designers of the space station should fully consider this issue when designing the space station, and for China's "Tiangong-1" space station, its design fully takes into account the privacy of male and female astronauts.
In particular, the bathroom, as the most private space in the space station, can be said to have put a lot of effort into the designers of the Chinese space station.
When designing, they divided the bathrooms into male and female astronaut areas, so as to ensure the privacy of male and female astronauts.
In addition, for the two areas, there are further subdivisions, which are "pee area" and "poop area".
In this way, it is possible to ensure the ease of use of both male and female astronauts, while at the same time ensuring relative independence between the two areas.
In addition, there is a special personal rest area in the space station, which is equivalent to the astronauts' private room, and the astronauts can put some of their personal belongings in this area.
3. Solving the problem of excretion in space.
In space, the excretion of human beings is a problem that cannot be ignored, if it is excreted rashly in space, it is likely to cause the life safety of astronauts, therefore, in order to solve this problem, astronauts have special solutions to the excretion problem in space.
For space vehicles, there will basically be toilets on them, but in space missions, there will be more people on the space vehicle and the space station, so the toilets are usually shared.
But in the bathroom, there is a high probability that male and female astronauts will be used at the same time, so it will definitely be more uncomfortable for female astronauts than male astronauts, so when designing, designers will take this issue into account.
In the toilet of the space vehicle, the solution of male and female astronauts excreting at the same time was adopted, and the designer let the female astronauts enter the bathroom in advance, and then the male astronauts waited in line outside.
At the time of excretion, a vacuum excretion device with suction is used in the aircraft, so that the male astronauts do not have to worry about "women first".
Since gravity is almost zero in space, the way in which excretion directly into the toilet bowl on Earth is not practical in space.
Therefore, the toilets in the aircraft all use vacuum excretion devices, and its working principle is very simple, that is, through the suction of the vacuum pump, the excrement is sucked into the container.
In addition, the feces excreted by astronauts in space will be collected through the "Apollo bag", which is a special fecal bag for astronauts in space, it is a special plastic bag, after the astronaut excretes the feces, the bag will be tied to the body, and then the excrement will automatically pass through the hose into the bag, at the same time, a special chemical will be released in the bag, which plays a role in neutralizing the smell of excrement.
4. Bathing and hair washing.
In space, the issue of astronauts' bathing has also become a thorny problem.
This is because in space, water is very precious, so you can't bathe as casually as you do on Earth.
In space vehicles, astronauts use the dry method for bathing.
When taking a bath, the astronaut will apply a special bath liquid to the body, which will quickly evaporate, and then the evaporated water will quickly evaporate the dirt from the astronaut's body.
In addition, there is also a problem with the washing of hair, because there is no water, so astronauts cannot wash their hair in space as they do on Earth.
Therefore, astronauts' hair can become very dirty in space, but dirty hair is not good for the astronaut's health, so astronauts can only scrub their hair in space using a liquid mixed with water and shampoo.
V. Conclusion.
As space exploration continues to increase, the number of female astronauts will increase, so it will become increasingly important for the humane design of space facilities to meet the needs of astronauts of different genders.
Because privacy is not only a matter of personal dignity, but also about the mental health and productivity of astronauts, it is particularly important to design a humanized space station environment.
With the development of technology and the accumulation of experience, the design of future space facilities may become more intelligent and humane, providing a more comfortable and private living environment for astronauts.
Especially in long-term space missions, especially in planned expeditions to the Moon and Mars, there will be greater challenges and pressures for solutions to astronauts' privacy protection and physiological needs.
Through the design of space facilities, it can also provide a more humane living environment for special groups on the earth, such as the disabled or the elderly.