Did you know that astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) wear clothing several times before replacing them with a new set?
Unlike here on land where clothes are washed after use, garments are delivered to the station through resupply shipment opportunities. The limited cargo capacity makes the practice of replenishing the clothing supply challenging for deep space missions, such as Artemis Moon missions and a crewed roundtrip Mars mission.
Without a laundry solution, 160 pounds of clothing per crew member per year are launched to the ISS. Human roundtrip missions to Mars could be two to three years in length.
Reasons why off-Earth laundering has never been done include ingredient safety and compatibility with NASA life support systems, the limited amount of water available per wash load, and the requirement that the wash water be purified back to drinking quality water.
Laundry brand Tide has signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA to help in the development of laundry detergent solutions in space beginning in 2022. Under the agreement, NASA may test and study Tide cleaning solutions in space, which the laundry brand aims to bring back to Earth in its consumer products.
Tide has developed a fully degradable detergent, specifically designed for use in space to solve malodor, cleanliness, and stain removal problems for washable items used during deep space missions, while being suitable for use in a close-loop water system.
Onboard a 2022 cargo launch to the space station, “Mission PGTide” (P&G Telescience Investigation of Detergent Experiments), teams will test the stability of cleaning ingredients under microgravity conditions and exposure to the radiation levels experienced in space in partnership with the ISS U.S. National Laboratory and SEOPS. The stain removal ingredients and performance will be tested onboard the ISS through experiments with Tide To Go Wipes and Tide To Go Pens.
In addition to testing onboard the ISS National Lab, NASA and Tide researchers may study how an innovative combined washing and drying unit utilizing the special-formulated detergent could potentially be integrated into planetary habitats that may be used for the Artemis Moon and Mars missions under low-gravity surface conditions.
“This partnership was created to rethink cleaning solutions – forcing us to rethink innovations for resource-constrained and challenging environments like the ISS, deep space, and even the future of our home planet,” said Aga Orlik, senior vice president of P&G North America Fabric Care.