The helmets are there because the animator can't do faces.

If I were designing a system, it would allow great views of Earth while being strapped down. Mercury astronauts, that could barely move in their capsule, didn't seem to have as much trouble with space sickness as later crews that got out of their seats and floated around.

As Phil points out, the floating around in this film, combined with the slow roll of the spacecraft, would probably have a lot more than a fifth of the passenger tossing cookies. Something like an industrial vacuum cleaner hose would be a plus, and one assumes that at least one of the passengers would be a trained attendant.