“The others followed suit . . . sliding down into what looked like a chaotic junkyard, about the size of a school gym. Johnny wondered if he was ever going to see the type of gleaming hi-tech spaceship he’d always imagined.”
JM&tSoL, p.81
When we watch science fiction films or TV shows, spaceships are normally spotlessly clean and tidy. The Discovery One of Kubrick/Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey would be the perfect pristine example if it weren’t for the mess going on inside computer HAL’s brain. From James Tiberius Kirk’s starship Enterprise through to Roj Blake’s Liberator, once we leave the shackles of Earth it seems nothing is ever the slightest bit out of place (even in zero G).
In real life things are seldom like that. I hate to disappoint any parents reading this, but I have to tell you that Johnny’s quarters on the Spirit of London are just as untidy as his bedroom back in Halader House.
At the UK’s National Space Centre in Leicester, there’s a mockup of one module of the International Space Station:
It’s informative to see how the same module looks in Earth orbit:
Thanks to Joey deVilla’s Global Nerdy blog for pointing out the pictures.
Subscribe to the Johnny Mackintosh RSS feed 
JohnnyMackintosh.com 