Astronauts are currently enjoying space living and travel via the International Space Station (ISS), but what about the future? If the answer is on a government owned site, we're all lost. Almost all government websites and social media accounts are offline due to the government shutdown here in the good old United States. Luckily, the inefficiency of Congress doesn't reach out to Earth orbit, because past and present astronaut bios are still online (probably hosted on a non-government server), and the astronauts in the ISS are still tweeting! Check out this wonderful shot from astronaut Luca Parmitano (@Astro_Luca):

Impossible not to smile with such a view! Impossibile non sorridere con un simile panorama! #Volare pic.twitter.com/wvWABNZnqs
— Luca Parmitano (@astro_luca) October 16, 2013

Luca and others are living that space life. Former astronaut Garret Reisman visited the Q&A website Quora to give us some insight on what it's like to transition into life in space. Via Quora:

At first it's just weird.

All kinds of things are happening to your body. Your vestibular system is all messed up - your inner ear isn't working at all and it's sending garbage signals to your brain. Your heart, which is used to pumping against gravity to do its most important job, delivering oxygenated blood to your brain, is now pumping too much and your head gets all puffed-up. (I woke up in the middle of my first night in orbit and wondered why I was standing on my head for a few seconds, until I realized, no - I was just in space.) When you close your eyes to go to sleep, you see lightning flashes inside your eyeballs.

And you have a hard time just moving around. The first day is filled with apologies as you inevitably kick or elbow your crewmates as you thrash around like a fish out of water.

But eventually you get the hang of it, and for those of us who were lucky enough to do long-duration missions, about a month into flight you finally really get used to it. Then you wake up in the morning, float out of your sleeping bag, shoot across the space station like superman and turn a few somersaults on the way to the galley for breakfast.

Now you are a real spaceman!

It's pretty amazing that it takes a month to get used to it. It usually takes me a few days to get over something as simple as jetlag if I'm flying across the country. Then again, I may be at home in space since here on Earth I'm already known for inevtiably kicking or elbowing people close to me due to my clumsiness.

Below are a few more interesting videos from the Quora thread. Former ISS Commander Sunita Williams gives us a walk through in Nov 2012 before she departs back to Earth. On the second video, YouTube user VSauce speaks about how long it may take us to truly live amongst the stars. Check them out!