International Space Station (ISS) Options

[ElkGroveDan]

It's kind of funny to see her working in this high-tech setting barefoot. I guess there's no real reason to wear shoes in space, but it does stand out.

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Normally they wear these: http://www.hammacher.com/publish/60665.asp?promo=ap_slippers

Another image of June 2007: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images...ss015e10579.jpg

[punkboi]

Are those available at retail stores? I wonder how much they'll sell for at Walmart

[dvandorn]

In a microgravity environment, your feet and toes dramatically gain usefulness. I read a breakdown somewhere of how various Skylab and early ISS crew adapted to microgravity, and a certain percentage ended up going barefoot a lot, using their toes to grab onto little "toeholds" in their environments and help stabilize their lower bodies when stopping to do some transient activity for which strapping in or down is way too much activity overhead.

One of the more interesting results of the Skylab experience that was actually taken into account in the design of the ISS modules was the breakdown of how people orient themselves within a microgravity environment. Going entirely from memory, I believe it was something like a third who felt comfortable no matter what direction their heads were pointed at any given time, guys who would have happily tossed workstations anywhere on a floor, ceiling or wall. Then there was a third that preferred to have a sense of local vertical congruent to their surroundings, people who liked to keep their feet pointed towards a "floor" and their heads towards a "ceiling", but who could easily work in odd angles if they needed to. And finally, there was a third who really strongly needed the local vertical, people who got physically uncomfortable in locations like the Multiple Docking Adapter, which had no local verticals but literally plastered the interior with equipment and control consoles.

Because of this, the third who would be happy hanging any which way were outvoted, and the ISS modules are all built with a pretty strong sense of local vertical. And most of the eventual labs will share the same local vertical, minimizing disorientation going from module to module. So, this is one instance where it would seem lessons were indeed learned and applied to later programs.

-the other Doug

[David]

In a microgravity environment, your feet and toes dramatically gain usefulness.

Who knew that being descended from arboreal apes would turn out to be so useful? Now, if only we'd retained grasping hind-paws -- perhaps some future genetic engineer can restore that bit of hominid heritage.

[ilbasso]

Another fun thing about being off of your feet for 180 days is that the callouses peel off the bottoms of your feet. For some folks, that can be quite a thick piece of skin! I would imagine that walking on uncalloused feet adds to the discomfort that people experience when they have to readjust to moving about on Earth.