"Even simple tasks are hard": India's first ISS astronaut on space life

How is day-to-day life in the microgravity condition of space different from that on the gravity of the earth?

Indian Air Force officer Shubhanshu Shukla, the country's first astronaut to enter the International Space Station (ISS), has shared his first-hand experience that even simple tasks like sleeping, walking, and drinking water become very challenging in microgravity conditions.

Being in the IAF, Shubhanshu said he has naturally heard of zero gravity. But this is the first time he is living through it.

Orbiting the earth onboard ISS since June 26, Shukla shared his experience in his first three days in the space station in a conversation with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.

The astronaut said the human body becomes so accustomed to gravity on the earth that even the smallest tasks in microgravity conditions in space become unexpectedly complex. For instance, he said that during the conversation with Modi, he had to tie his feet down "as otherwise I would go up and the mike too. Drinking water, walking, and sleeping is a big challenge. You can sleep on the roof, you can sleep on the walls, you can sleep on the ground……so, it takes a day or two to get used to it and then it becomes fine, then it becomes normal."

Modi asked Shukla whether the carrot halwa that the astronaut carried from India had been shared with his fellow astronauts, Shukla said he brought along several traditional Indian delicacies to the ISS, carrot halwa, moong dal halwa, and aam ras (mango juice). He told the Prime Minister that they all sat together and enjoyed the dishes.

Shukla said his fellow astronauts appreciated the Indian dishes so much that some even expressed a desire to visit India in the future to experience them on Indian soil.