NASA and Tide team up to deal with dirty laundry in space
Humans have been living in space for years, but it took endless research and planning to make that possible. Everything we take for granted on the surface of the planet, where we have gravity and resources to accommodate our every whim, has to be engineered to work in space. Scientists have yet to solve every problem required to make living in space for extended periods comfortable to astronauts and affordable for the governments and companies that might be footing the bill.
One of the biggest problems astronauts encounter is something we wouldn’t think twice about on Earth: Washing clothes. That’s because they don’t wash any of their clothes. They wear shirts and pants and socks multiple times until regulations say that they need to be swapped out for new ones, and the dirty ones get sent back to the planet. They receive fresh clothes with every resupply trip, which is challenging for planning a longer mission. That’s where Tide wants to help, as Procter & Gamble is partnering with NASA to come up with technology that would allow astronauts to wash their clothes in space.
The main reason that astronauts don’t wash their clothes in space concerns the water supply. The International Space Station (ISS) recycles all its water, and washing clothes isn’t part of the water budget.
Yet astronaut clothes do get dirty. Space station inhabitants need to exercise two hours every day to fight against the effects of weightlessness on muscles and bones. They then sweat in their clothes. Some of the water is reclaimed through evaporation, but the clothes will become smelly and stiff. An astronaut must change T-shirts, shorts, and socks once per week, Leland Melvin tells Associated Press.
“After that, they’re deemed toxic,” the former NASA astronaut and NFL player said. “They like have a life of their own. They’re so stiff from all that sweat.” Melvin will serve as a spokesperson for the project.
