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Homeowner Forum / Cleaning / May 2005laundry equipment for Mars mission?
My understanding is, that up till today, no laundry has ever been done in manned spaceflight. Presumeably this would need to change for a Mars manned flight. I believe the requirements are... 1. method for removing soil from clothing 2. method for restoring clothes to wearable condition (e.g., dry them) 3. method for disposing of soil (eg, throw dirty water overboard? throw dirty water filters overboard? What is the optimal equipment configuration? Bosch has a robotic shirt-ironer, by the way.... > My understanding is, that up till today, no laundry has ever been done > in manned spaceflight. That's not correct. They do laundry on the ISS. The equipment includes laundry detergent and a plastic bag. It is done by hand. It is "hung up" (for want of a better phrase, in zero-g) afterwards to dry. > That's not correct. They do laundry on the ISS. > > The equipment includes laundry detergent and a plastic bag. It is done > by hand. Hmm, I found one reference to this. It doesn't seem to be done often (I'm not sure what you'd do with the dirty water from the plastic bag). But you are right, it has been done. . . . As a result, astronauts have to stretch out how long they wear the underwear that they can take with them. They must make sure they will have underwear during their whole stay. . . . Commander Bowersox has even figured out a way to wash his shorts on the ISS. He uses a plastic bag! . . . Once it is there and the Station crew has unloaded the supplies, the Progress is then loaded up with trash. This includes dirty laundry. . . . http://www.nasaexplores.com/show2_5_8a.php?id=03-026&gl=58 > My understanding is, that up till today, no laundry has ever been done > in manned spaceflight. Experiments have been done using ultrasonics and special cleaning agents that might be the answer. Dirty water would be recycled, possibly using vacuum distillation as part of the process. The recovered dirt and cleaner would be the consumable portion and that might be thrown away. There was even a spate of commercial ultrasonic washing machines for a while as a result of this research. Cheers! Sir Charles W. Shults III, K. B. B. Xenotech Research 321-206-1840 Best way to look for a solution: Use no water. Liquids are too heavy to carry and launch (though if water is a by-product from some other system could use that). Biodegradable chemicals. No off gassing. Recycle. Clothes don't get wet no need to dry. Nothing to throw away. Kim > My understanding is, that up till today, no laundry has ever been done > in manned spaceflight. [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Bosch has a robotic shirt-ironer, by the way.... > Best way to look for a solution: Use no water. Liquids are too heavy to > carry and launch (though if water is a by-product from some other system > could use that). Biodegradable chemicals. No off gassing. Recycle. > Clothes don't get wet no need to dry. Nothing to throw away. > > Kim The astronauts' metabolism will produce about 2500 kg of water during the mission, so there will be a source of water. But an attractive possibility for laundry in space might be dry cleaning using supercritical carbon dioxide. Problems of dealing with traditional solvents would be eliminated, and the fabric emerges perfectly dry. http://www.chem.leeds.ac.uk/People/CMR/moreco2.html http://www.pprc.org/pprc/rpd/statefnd/turi/supercri.html Carey Sublette What would happen to a soiled (presumeably mostly sweat and body oils right?) garment is simply hung out the window as it were - that is to say simply exposed to the vacuum of space? What would happen to the sweat and oils? rick jones  Signatureoxymoron n, commuter in a gas-guzzling luxury SUV with an American flag these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway... :) feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH... > What would happen to a soiled (presumeably mostly sweat and body oils > right?) garment is simply hung out the window as it were - that is to > say simply exposed to the vacuum of space? What would happen to the > sweat and oils? > > rick jones H2O would sublime to vapor, if mildly warm. Expect many of the remaining components to become crystallized 'freeze-dried' stuff...but would it readily let go of the cloth? That's what one really wants. SignatureYou know what to remove, to reply.... >> What would happen to a soiled (presumeably mostly sweat and body oils >> right?) garment is simply hung out the window as it were - that is to [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > remaining components to become crystallized 'freeze-dried' stuff...but > would it readily let go of the cloth? That's what one really wants. Depends on what their vapor pressures are at the thermal limits of the cloth. You would heat the cloth while exposing it to vacuum to drive off everything you could. I suspect there are waxes that would act like vacuum grease and stay behind though and build up. Solvent extraction with agitation seems like a good idea. >> What would happen to a soiled (presumably mostly sweat and body oils >> right?) garment is simply hung out the window as it were - that is to [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > remaining components to become crystallized 'freeze-dried' stuff...but > would it readily let go of the cloth? That's what one really wants. That's why there is a rinse cycle, to wash away the soap and all the oil and dirt that it took off the clothes. That way the crystallized 'freeze-dried' stuff is just whatever happens to get by the water filter. There are worst environments on Earth for doing laundry than at the Space Station. Places with no water, and places with too much water, but not the right kind. Have you ever done laundry with sea water? The cloth will not dry in a humid environment with salt on it. When all the living sea water drys, the water dies and stinks. The last rinse cycle has to be with fresh water to wash the sea from the cloth. On the Space Station this would be rinsing with filtered water. Yawl act like you've never done laundry before, maybe you should try it. ;-) SignatureCraig Fink Courtesy E-Mail Welcome @ WeBeGood@GMail.Com > > What would happen to a soiled (presumeably mostly sweat and body oils > > right?) garment is simply hung out the window as it were - that is to [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > remaining components to become crystallized 'freeze-dried' stuff...but > would it readily let go of the cloth? That's what one really wants. Put the laundry in a cage and then vibrate that, either roughly or ultrasonically. Should work pretty well. Recalls desperate college days of hanging jeans out of my window instead of a $.25 wash. On Mars, the jeans would get dusty. Marc >> > What would happen to a soiled (presumeably mostly sweat and body oils >> > right?) garment is simply hung out the window as it were - that is to [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > On Mars, the jeans would get dusty. Surely the cloth would either be frozen solid and break up or melt and evapourate depending on whether it was in sunlight or not? Would also be radioactive? In sci.space.tech JusUK <jusuk@travel-diaryspamoff.de.retro.com> wrote: >>> > What would happen to a soiled (presumeably mostly sweat and body oils >>> > right?) garment is simply hung out the window as it were - that is to [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] >> >> On Mars, the jeans would get dusty. > Surely the cloth would either be frozen solid and break up or melt and > evapourate depending on whether it was in sunlight or not? Would also be > radioactive? The near space environment does not make things noticably radioactive. And, though it may freeze , if in the shade, the earth is a large hot object that will not let it get very cold. Even if it does freeze, evaporation (sublimation) of ice continues. In sunlight, things do not actually get hot enough to burn. At the same distance from the sun as earth orbit, things get to about 0C, if they can radiate on both sides. If only on one side, then the temperature does not double, from 0C (273K) to 500K, but goes up by only the fourth root of two, or about 1.2 times, to about 330K, or 60C. It's quite hard to actaully melt stuff without intending to. "black body" kelvin and sublimation ice vacuum for more info. > >> > What would happen to a soiled (presumeably mostly sweat and body oils > >> > right?) garment is simply hung out the window as it were - that is to [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > Surely the cloth would either be frozen solid and break up or melt and > evapourate depending on whether it was in sunlight or not? Tempratures wouldn't be *that* cold or hot. > Would also be > radioactive? Why? SignatureYou know what to remove, to reply.... >> >> > What would happen to a soiled (presumeably mostly sweat and body >> >> > oils [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > > Tempratures wouldn't be *that* cold or hot. Thanks alanh...@yahoo.com wrote: > My understanding is, that up till today, no laundry has ever been done > in manned spaceflight. Somewhere I came across the idea of having the astronauts go nude. Might take a little higher cabin temp, but that should not be a problem on Earth-Mars trip. Of course TV broadcasts would require having a few "dress uniforms" on hand. Tom [...] > Somewhere I came across the idea of having the astronauts > go nude. Might take a little higher cabin temp, but that > should not be a problem on Earth-Mars trip. > > Of course TV broadcasts would require having a few > "dress uniforms" on hand. Well, there are sanitary reasons for considering at least minimal clothing, not to mention protecting the skin from the item being worked on (tool slippage, hot liquid splahes, abrasin, etc). It would also be interesting to be able to qunatify how much the clothing reduces dispersal of dead skin cells and loose hair shafts. We might end up asking them to wear watch caps in addition to uniforms! /dps 1. they could send it home to be cleaned 2. this would be a situation where disposable &/or biodegradable fabric is suitable. ;) Hey, we got microfibre on earth already. How dirty can one get in a climate controlled environment? My only perception of life in space are guys in suits floating around. Stop spending millions (?) on research and get Luvs. (usa brand of diapers) btw, how did the space dogs and monkeys stay clean...I don't really want to know...just thought of it. cheers, D |
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