Airing their dirty laundry: Astronauts forced to wear sweaty underwear for days - Edmonton Journal

Rabu, 23 Juni 2021

Airing their dirty laundry: Astronauts forced to wear sweaty underwear for days - Edmonton Journal

There's been no room for washing clothes. But now, Tide plans to send special test detergents to space

Author of the article:

Shari Kulha

Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques speaks to schoolchildren from the International Space Station in 2019. That large black circle behind his knee is not a giant dryer. Photo by Postmedia file

Just because things are weightless in space doesn’t mean astronauts can bring anything they want on their flights. As they have to ensure takeoff weights are as low as possible, they must pack light. Very light.

This means the number of personal items must be pared to the bare minimum — including the number of changes of underwear. No, seriously. They have to wear each pair as long as possible, even if they’re going to work out for two hours every day as per regulations.

According to the Associated Press, an astronaut needs 68 kilograms of clothing in space per year. If they eventually go for a six-month stay on the International Space Station or a three-year Mars mission, with current options, baggage and storage limits wouldn’t allow for many changes of clothes.

And anyway, there’s no room to do laundry. So what’s a high-flier to do? Well, wear the stuff until they’re too disgusted with themselves to last another day, then fold the item neatly into an unmanned cargo capsule that will be jettisoned to burn up in the atmosphere upon the return to Earth.

Being an astronaut may appear to be glamorous and coveted, but in reality, much of the day to day is a grind. At its most base, T-shirts, undergarments and socks end up so foul that crew members run through a pair every week, Leland Melvin, a former NASA astronaut and NFL player, told the AP.

“After that, they’re deemed toxic,” said Melvin, who’s a spokesman for the project. “They, like, have a life of their own. They’re so stiff from all that sweat.”

In an effort to alleviate the entire problem, Procter & Gamble is going to send two Tide detergent and stain removal experiments to the ISS later this year and next.

in December, P&G will launch detergent custom-made for space; ISS scientists will study how the enzymes and other ingredients react to six months of weightlessness.

Then in May, astronauts will receive stain-removal pens and wipes for testing.

And for that time that NASA or another space agency sets up a colony on a celestial body, P&G says it is developing an eco-friendly washer-dryer combo that will use minimal amounts of water and detergent. Such a machine could also prove useful in water-challenged regions down here on Earth, AP suggests.

One of the many capsule-design challenges, though, is that laundry water needs to be reclaimed for drinking and cooking. But given that urine and sweat are recycled aboard the ISS, repurposing grey water doesn’t seem insurmountable.

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2021-06-23 19:32:44Z
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Tva Ganir

Rabu, 23 Juni 2021