(Graphic: Business Wire)
Tide® and NASA have inked a Space Act Agreement to collaborate on the advancement of laundry detergent solutions and space technologies. NASA may test and evaluate Tide cleaning solutions in space under the terms of the agreement. The research could have on-planet ramifications, such as novel solutions to Earth’s resource and environmental concerns. Tide will hope to put apart learning back to daily consumer goods, in line with its ten-year sustainability goal, Ambition 2030.
On the International Space Station (ISS), astronauts currently wear their gear numerous times before changing it with a new set. Resupply shipping possibilities are used to bring clothing to the station. Because of the restricted cargo capacity, replacing the clothing supply for long space missions like the Artemis Moon missions and a crewed round trip Mars journey is difficult. Without the need for a laundry solution, the ISS receives 160 pounds of garments per crew member per year. Human missions to Mars could take two to three years to complete.
Major challenges for off-Earth laundering include ingredient safety and compatibility with NASA life support systems, and the limited amount of water available per wash load and the requirement that the wash water be purified back to drinking-quality 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.
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. In addition, the stain removal ingredients and performance will be tested onboard the ISS through experiments with Tide To Go Wipes and Tide To Go Pens.
“The ISS National Lab is excited to work with the P&G team once again as they push the limits of their research and development onboard the orbiting laboratory,” said Dr. Michael Roberts, Acting Chief Scientist for the ISS National Lab. “Through private-sector utilization of the space station, companies like P&G can conduct investigations in ways not possible on Earth to develop new consumer products, enhance existing products, and better understand processes that further business models both on the ground and in low Earth orbit. We look forward to this first investigation of Tide in Space and hope that many more will soon follow.”
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. There are also a unique set of challenges that present themselves for a crewed Mars mission. Future missions to and from Mars expect to span multiple years, and these long-duration flights will require laundry solutions designed for extreme space-based environments and varying gravity 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, P&G North America Fabric Care. “We are eager to apply our learnings from our partnerships with NASA and the ISS National Lab to Tide on Earth, developing a low-resource-use laundry solution for everyday use while meeting consumer demand for more sustainable products.”
Tide’s space travel for essential to minimise washing solutions follows Tide’s Ambition 2030 goals, which were unveiled earlier this spring. Implementable objectives to discover commodity efficiencies in energy, water, and waste from across laundry lifecycle – from manufacturing process to consumer use phase and final disposal – were among Tide’s Ambition commitments, with the aim of reducing the environmental impact of a load of laundry while increasing the impact of clean clothes.
“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,” says Orlik. “The collaboration with NASA and the ISS National Lab are 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.”
You may also visit here to get more information on Tide’s overarching sustainability goals
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