5 ms·

Astronauts' Dirty Laundry (2003)

48 points by akeck 6y ago

EleanorLily 6y ago
Before the dirty laundry can be ejected into space, it has a tendency to pile up. According to NASA, all of these dirty garments can cause storage and weight problems, and lint from cotton fibres can clog filters. Then, there's the smell.
- sitharus 6y ago
  Fortunately your sense of is dulled in space, so they probably can’t smell much. https://youtu.be/o6nhTeLO5yY https://youtu.be/o6nhTeLO5yY I’m not sure about the comment on the cotton fibres. Garments in storage don’t just shed fibres, they need to be agitated. A non-woven storage bag would solve that.
  - bregma 6y ago
    The cosmonauts I have spoken with personally have said the ISS stinks of human bodies and other things. It's also very noisy 24 by 7, and there is constant air movement. Three things they did not expect.
    - galuggus 6y ago
      What other good stories have you heard from them?
    - moftz 6y ago
      Every sound is transmitted across the entire structure. There's no foundation or outside air for vibrations to attenuate into so sound travels very easily.
  - danaliv 6y ago
    I asked an astronaut what it smells like in space. He said, “Ever been camping?”
ginko 6y ago
Designing a zero G washing machine doesn't seem that far fetched. It could be solvent based and any residual solvent could be removed via vacuum. I guess it's one of those things that may already have been considered but then it was decided that it wasn't worth the extra weight and that reusing/dumping clothes was good enough.
- hmwhy 6y ago
  I can't comment too much on the zero-G washing part (but I tend to agree), and I think the comment about solvent is actually very interesting. It's likely that weight is probably not the biggest concern if such a washing system were to be implemented, as they would probably design a system to recycle the washing liquid. I think most solvents that are candidates as washing liquids post either additional health and/or fire hazards in space. In addition, and particularly for water-based washing, I think the error tolerance in engineering either (1) additional infrastructure to the existing water-recycling system and/or (2) a part that can confidently remove unwanted chemicals are challenging problems. the latter is probably the bigger concern because tolerance for error there would probably be substantially lower than urine recycling. Just a guess because I thought it's an interesting comment, and it's quite possible that one can already design (if it doesn't already exist) a washing liquid that is safe for consumption at small quantities.
  - imglorp 6y ago
    ISS has a circulating ammonia system for its active cooling loops. Maybe there's a way to leverage that system if you can filter the laundry contaminants before returning to the loop. Also nobody's mentioned UV light. Odors are often due to bacteria and simply killing that stuff would go a long way to reusing garments without gagging on the odor.
    - gambiting 6y ago
      Also, I know people have done experiments where instead of washing, they have been freezing their clothes and that gets rid of the odour. And surely, freezing things on ISS should be trivial.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

48 points by akeck 6y ago

Before the dirty laundry can be ejected into space, it has a tendency to pile up. According to NASA, all of these dirty garments can cause storage and weight problems, and lint from cotton fibres can clog filters. Then, there's the smell.

sitharus 6y ago
Fortunately your sense of is dulled in space, so they probably can’t smell much. https://youtu.be/o6nhTeLO5yY https://youtu.be/o6nhTeLO5yY I’m not sure about the comment on the cotton fibres. Garments in storage don’t just shed fibres, they need to be agitated. A non-woven storage bag would solve that.
- bregma 6y ago
  The cosmonauts I have spoken with personally have said the ISS stinks of human bodies and other things. It's also very noisy 24 by 7, and there is constant air movement. Three things they did not expect.
  - galuggus 6y ago
    What other good stories have you heard from them?
  - moftz 6y ago
    Every sound is transmitted across the entire structure. There's no foundation or outside air for vibrations to attenuate into so sound travels very easily.
- danaliv 6y ago
  I asked an astronaut what it smells like in space. He said, “Ever been camping?”

ginko 6y ago

Designing a zero G washing machine doesn't seem that far fetched. It could be solvent based and any residual solvent could be removed via vacuum. I guess it's one of those things that may already have been considered but then it was decided that it wasn't worth the extra weight and that reusing/dumping clothes was good enough.

hmwhy 6y ago
I can't comment too much on the zero-G washing part (but I tend to agree), and I think the comment about solvent is actually very interesting. It's likely that weight is probably not the biggest concern if such a washing system were to be implemented, as they would probably design a system to recycle the washing liquid. I think most solvents that are candidates as washing liquids post either additional health and/or fire hazards in space. In addition, and particularly for water-based washing, I think the error tolerance in engineering either (1) additional infrastructure to the existing water-recycling system and/or (2) a part that can confidently remove unwanted chemicals are challenging problems. the latter is probably the bigger concern because tolerance for error there would probably be substantially lower than urine recycling. Just a guess because I thought it's an interesting comment, and it's quite possible that one can already design (if it doesn't already exist) a washing liquid that is safe for consumption at small quantities.
- imglorp 6y ago
  ISS has a circulating ammonia system for its active cooling loops. Maybe there's a way to leverage that system if you can filter the laundry contaminants before returning to the loop. Also nobody's mentioned UV light. Odors are often due to bacteria and simply killing that stuff would go a long way to reusing garments without gagging on the odor.
  - gambiting 6y ago
    Also, I know people have done experiments where instead of washing, they have been freezing their clothes and that gets rid of the odour. And surely, freezing things on ISS should be trivial.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]