Nasa astronaut and former International Space Station commander Dr Shannon Walker said life on board the space station was extremely busy and everyone was under constant supervision from ground control.
So at weekends, when the cameras were turned off and they finally had some privacy . . . they played with their food.
"We definitely play with our food. How can you not?"
Occasionally, astronauts can be seen making water globules and playing with them before drinking them.
"You’ve just got to keep track of it and not let it hit anything," Dr Walker said.
It was the same with their meals, she said.
"The tricky part about the food is we’re not allowed to have anything crunchy.
"Crunchy food makes crumbs, crumbs float around everywhere, crumbs will get into the equipment, they’ll get into your eyes — we just don’t want that hassle.
"So the food is rather sticky."
Which was also fun to play with, she said.
"We obviously follow the rules up there, but on the weekends or when we’ve got time off and the cameras aren’t on, you’ll see us being kind of silly, flying around the space station or having contests to see who can fly the farthest without touching anything, or how many flips can you do without touching anything — that kind of stuff."
Dr Walker spent 167 days on the space station and said it was important to have some fun during down-time because life on board was so hectic.
"It takes a lot of mental energy to be in space because you’re doing other people’s work — it’s their research and you don’t want to screw it up.
"You’re on camera all the time and you have people watching you. There’s so much going on."
While there were some downsides to life in space (like having to drink your crew members’ recycled urine), it was all overshadowed by the upside — the view.
"The view is amazing. It never gets old looking at the Earth or looking out at the stars.
"The Milky Way is just stunning from space because you see so many more stars than you can see on the ground."
Dr Walker was in Dunedin yesterday, sharing some of her experiences with school pupils, on what was the last stop of her Otago and Southland tour.
The tour was part of Otago Museum’s science roadshow Tuhura Tuarangi Aotearoa in Space programme, which aimed to inspire young people to learn about the Universe, science and technology, and help them realise careers in space are possible right here in New Zealand.
Otago Museum roadshow development leader Dr Andrew Mills said there was nothing more inspiring than having an astronaut, who had been-there-and-done-that, speaking about their adventures.
