NASA Is Sending Tide Detergent to Space—Here’s How It’s Going to Make Laundry Better for the Earth
NASA and Tide might seem like an odd pairing, but like a college freshman, NASA hasn't figured out how to do laundry yet—in space, that is. As it turns out, that’s a huge problem for the future of human space exploration, including our missions to Mars. That’s why the agency has enlisted the aid of the laundry giant to come up with some solutions that will not only get us to Mars, but also improve laundry science here on Earth to make detergent friendlier to our environment.
Right now, astronauts on the Internation Space Station (ISS) dispose of their clothes after a few days of wear, ejecting them from the station to burn up in the atmosphere. Though not a star model for sustainability, this method works for missions in low-Earth orbit since we can send up resupply ships with fresh clothing. But when we go to Mars, we’re going to have to provide the crew with everything they need at launch; for a three-year Mars mission, that’ll be some 500 pounds of clothing per astronaut if it’s not washable.
To save that precious cargo weight for other life-supporting gear, NASA and Tide are developing a special formula for space detergent with long-duration missions in mind, as well as a space-friendly washing machine. One of the key challenges regarding the former is that dirty laundry water must be able to be turned into drinking water. (Space habitats like the ISS have closed-loop water systems, so all liquids, including bodily fluids, need to be recycled for consumption...yeah, pretty gross.)
So, Tide scientists have been hard at work developing ways for astronauts to do laundry in space, including developing a new detergent formula. In about a year, Tide will be sending experiments up to the ISS to test the new product, as well as some classics like Tide To Go pens and wipes, as part of its “Mission PGTide” (P&G Telescience Investigation of Detergent Experiments). The company hopes not only to solve the issue of doing laundry in space, but also to advance laundry science here on Earth to be more sustainable.
For instance, this NASA detergent will work with just four gallons of water (most washers use 13 to 20 here right now). So once the science is brought back down to Earth, we'll also be able to use far less water when washing our clothes.
The goal for NASA detergent to make dirty laundry water drinkable bodes well for the future of Earth detergent, too. Right now, most detergents have ingredients that can pollute the watershed after we flush it down our drains—hopefully, the NASA and Tide partnership will lead to breakthroughs in developing detergents that are not harmful to the environment.
“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, the senior vice president of fabric care in North America at Tide’s parent company Procter & Gamble (P&G), said in a statement. “The collaboration with NASA and the ISS National Lab [is] 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.
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