The Joy of Zero G

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cygonaut

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Aug 9, 2010, 1:45:30 AM8/9/10

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We don't really need to discuss details that people can imagine for themselves, but basically, floating has got to be fun! Anything that makes you giggle in such a situation surely has to be a good thing! Among other effects, being weightless will mean that you and your partner can manoeuvre round each other without danger of either of you - or any parts of you - getting squashed! No more arms or legs going numb!

It's surely also true that there will be a certain "knack" to be learned for "rendezvous and docking". In fact, quite a number of ideas have already been published about this in both fiction and non-fiction books. For example, one author has suggested using special four-legged shorts to hold couples together!

Another has suggested (apparently seriously) that three people will always be needed! (Well, I guess tastes differ - but not for me, thanks!)

Other authors have proposed a range of special furniture and fittings in zero-G bed-rooms for holding onto to prevent you floating around and bumping your head against the walls!

So far, people who've stayed in orbit have generally slept in sleeping bags attached to the wall - but remember, in zero G, walls, floor and ceiling are the same. This has been mainly in order to take up as little of the limited space as possible.

In orbiting hotel rooms, probably a mattress or futon against the "wall", and a sheet or blanket with a large patch of velcro at each corner will be preferred. This will be enough to keep you in place "in bed", and should work for double beds as well as for single beds. But there's clearly plenty of scope for entertaining experimentation! By bedroom designers - and by users!

The cheaper end of the spectrum of sleeping accommodation will be used by hotel staff (and students?) and will be more cramped - something like a sleeping-bag in a broom-cupboard!

Anyway, we can presumably be confident that honeymoons in orbit will become a significant segment of the space tourism market!