Bloomberg — Tide, the laundry detergent used by millions of people in the United States, wants to make lunar laundromats a reality.
Parent company Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) is working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on a formula that can withstand off-planet conditions so astronauts can do laundry during their missions. The first shipment arrived at the International Space Station on a SpaceX rocket on December 21, and its performance is being evaluated .
The clothing is worn multiple times by astronauts, substituting it for new garments delivered on resupply missions . But spacecraft have limited cargo capacity, and resupply shipments aren't possible on longer voyages to far flung places like the Moon or, one day, Mars. This makes the laundry one of many questions scientists must answer as the demand for space travel increases.
“There is no effective solution for doing laundry in space,” Marc Pritchard, P&G brand director, said at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on Wednesday.
Something that may already seem mundane on Earth, like doing laundry, faces various obstacles in space. One is that each payload relies on a small amount of water, which then has to be purified into something astronauts can drink . P&G has developed a fully degradable Tide detergent that aims to meet this challenge, and the company hopes the experience will help develop more sustainable cleaning products at home as well.
The process will be optimized to use about 15 liters of water for a 10-pound load of laundry, P&G said, compared to about 49 to 77 liters when washing at home.
"This innovation will not only serve to advance cleaning solutions in space, but also for resource-limited environments, such as water-scarce areas on Earth," Pritchard said.
For the smaller stains that happen to astronauts, P&G is also testing Tide To Go Pens and Tide To Go Wipes in a microgravity environment .
With the assistance of Justin Bachman.
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This article was translated by Andrea González
