At first glance, the bathhouse and space travel are two mutually exclusive concepts. On a spaceship, you can hardly find a bath, shower, toilet, shampoo or deodorant. Hygiene is a perennial challenge for astronauts. At first, I had to be content with wet wipes, which did not do their job well.
Today the situation has not changed much. The astronaut has a wet towel at his disposal. A dry towel can be used for three days, but the effect is less. Water is dispensed from the water distribution and supply unit, but with strict restrictions. According to the rules, it is allowed to take no more than one glass per day. This glass is spent on cleaning teeth, and there is nothing to think about other hygienic procedures.
Spending 5-6 months in orbit, cosmonauts dream of a shower, a bath and other simple joys of life. At the Salyut-6 orbital station, the spacecraft was equipped with a shower. But the appearance of a bath in space became a real holiday. This design cannot be called a bathhouse in the traditional sense of the word, but the astronauts are content with little. The design is similar in shape to a barrel or a cylindrical shower stall. The walls in the bath are transparent and made of polyethylene.
In a weightless state, water spreads over the spacecraft in the form of separate drops. But the design is equipped with special mechanisms that prevent droplets from floating aimlessly in the air. The astronaut is rubbing water over his body. All polluted water does not go anywhere - it is purified and used a second time. This approach allows astronauts to get by on a ship with a small amount of water.
When diving into the cockpit, the astronaut puts on a tube to supply oxygen and glasses for protection. Water is launched from above under high pressure - so that the jet reaches its destination. This air flow does not produce liquid and will turn into droplets that travel aimlessly around the cabin. A pump is installed at the bottom of the bath, which removes all the water from the structure.
So far, the pump does not have enough power to collect all the water from the astronaut. He has to shake off the remaining water on his own - for this you need to shake well. During the procedure, the astronauts resemble a dog or cat after bathing. During the first use, the soap solution is distributed along the walls of the bath, so that it can be removed by a vacuum cleaner later. Then the procedure is repeated without solution - with clean water.
Previously, some cosmonauts even took brooms with them on a flight to take a steam bath in orbit. This "attribute" reminded them of a traditional bath, which they so much want to go to in the conditions of endless cold space.