NASA, Tide Join Forces To Develop Laundry Detergent For Space

Tide has teamed up with NASA to develop detergent astronauts can use in space. The results of this study may help revolutionize how we do laundry here on Earth.

With plans to go further in space, it's natural that the human explorers would need quite a few changes of clothes for the long haul. For instance, roundtrip missions to Mars could take a few years, Procter & Gamble (P&G), the company that owns Tide, noted in a news release Tuesday. However, dealing with laundry is still a bit tricky even with the nearby International Space Station (ISS).

So far, there are no washing machines aboard the orbiting station, so astronauts aboard the ISS have to wear their clothes a few times before changing to a new set while the dirty ones have to be thrown out. This means new astronaut clothes have to be sent up to the ISS through resupply missions. However, this takes precious cargo space, and could really prove to be a challenge for longer missions.

To find a solution to the problem, NASA and Tide have signed a Space Act Agreement to figure out how to clean astronauts' clothes. Under this agreement, NASA may study and test Tide cleaning solutions in space.

According to P&G, some of the challenges of doing laundry in space include ingredient safety, the limited water availability and the requirement for the wash water to be purified again as drinking water.

"To combat these challenges, 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," P&G noted.

Mission PGTide (P&G Telescience Investigation of Detergent Experiments) will launch on a cargo mission in 2022 to send the Tide cleaning ingredients to be tested aboard the ISS. It will also include some stain removal products such as Tide To Go Wipes.

The company is also looking into developing a washer-dryer unit that could potentially be placed in habitats for future Artemis Moon and Mars missions.

These developments could have implications on how laundry is done here on Earth as they can lead to the creation of more sustainable laundry products for everyday use, P&G said.

"Humanity has reached a pivotal point where on one hand, we're on the exciting cusp of space colonization, and on the other, facing a critical period where action must be taken now to save the planet we all call home," Aga Orlik, senior vice president for P&G North America Fabric Care, said in the news release.

"The collaboration with NASA and the ISS National Lab are [sic] particularly exciting because it allows us to push the bounds of resource efficiency to its absolute limit, uncovering learnings with practical applications for both the future of laundry in space and here on Earth," Orlik added.