The captain or commanding officer would occupy the "great cabin" that normally spanned the width of the stern and had large windows.
Thus, when likely to be called from sleep or attending to administration, the commanding officer can go to the sea cabin and thereby be able to appear at the bridge or operations room immediately.
In ships carrying passengers, they are normally accommodated in cabins, taking the terminology familiar to seafarers.
The space cabin for any long-range crewed mission is expected to be reasonably spacious, with approximately 28 cubic metres allotted to each occupant.
In the late 1960s, several experimental ground facilities were developed to evaluate regenerative life support systems for crewed space flight.