Lots of people seem to want to go to space. The last time the European Space Agency advertised for astronauts, it received 22,000 applications for only 13 jobs.

But if you can’t go there for work, what about a holiday in space? Space Adventures Limited says it can get you into space as a tourist - if you can afford the trip.

One of their advertised trips is to the Moon in a Russian rocket. “Because the Moon doesn’t have an atmosphere like the Earth does, you would have a tremendous view of the Moon and all the craters,” says Stacey Tearne of Space Adventures. So what’s the snag? Well, one is the price: the trip costs $100 million.

For a cheaper trip, (only $20m), you can visit the International Space Station. “You would spend about ten days aboard the International Space Station,” says Stacey. “You would go through training as you would for the lunar mission - 900 hours of training in a cosmonaut programme.”

Edge of space flight

Space Adventures also has an “edge of space” flight. It’s a supersonic jet flight in a Russian jet called the MiG-25. “It’s the highest flying jet there is and would be going at about mach 2.5 (just over 1,600 mph), 80,000 feet above the Earth’s surface,” says Stacey. “You would see the curvature of the Earth, you’d see the thin line of the atmosphere, the black sky above you, blue below you.” The cost of this trip is about $20,000.

Living in space

The record for a long-duration mission is held by the Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, who completed a 438-day tour of duty on the Mir space station in 1995

Space suit

• A space suit weighs about 280lb on the ground - without the astronaut in it
• It weighs nothing in space
• Putting on a space suit takes about 45 minutes

Laundry

• There’s no washing machine on a space ship
• Astronauts only change their shorts and shirts every 10 days
• They change underwear and socks every two days
• On a space station, dirty clothes are put into a re-supply capsule
• They burn up when the capsule enters the Earth’s atmosphere

Body fluids

• Two thirds of the human body is made up of water
• On Earth, gravity makes liquid settle downwards in the body
• In space, fluids move up from the legs to the head
• In one day, an astronaut’s legs can shrink by up to a litre in volume
• The face can puff up by the same amount

Fresh air

• Space ship life support systems recycle as much as possible
• Waste water from urine, moisture condensed in the air, breath and sweat are either purified and reused or broken down by electrolysis, to make fresh oxygen

Learn more:

Visit Space Adventures on the Web

Learn more about the International Space Station

Go on an online visit to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum