{"id":505757,"date":"2026-05-27T20:57:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T20:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/505757\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T20:57:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T20:57:16","slug":"this-plasma-gun-could-save-astronauts-from-filthy-underwear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/505757\/","title":{"rendered":"This Plasma Gun Could Save Astronauts From Filthy Underwear"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we saw with Artemis 2\u2019s toilet debacle<\/a>, astronauts deal with lots of inconveniences in space. One particularly icky situation is doing\u2014or, really, not doing\u2014laundry. According to NASA<\/a>, astronauts bring two small suitcases\u2019 worth of clothes and sometimes wear the same underwear for up to a week\u2014after which they get loaded onto a ship meant to burn up in the atmosphere. Not ideal.<\/p>\n

But if a new invention can live up to its promises, astronauts may no longer have to worry about running out of clean underwear. This new \u201claundry gun\u201d blasts cold plasma comprised of helium, air, and water vapor, and the plasma beam caused electron-induced reactions that kill bacteria that make fabrics smelly and unsanitary. The device is still a proof-of-concept, so the plasma comes out about the size of a pencil, Gabe Xu<\/a>, an aerospace engineer at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, told Gizmodo. If scaled up, however, it could even help astronauts sterilize spacesuits and tools before exploring extraterrestrial territories, like Mars, he said.<\/p>\n

The experiments demonstrated that the technology can \u201ckeep clothes and soft surfaces clean, at least microbially, for astronaut health,\u201d said Xu, who presented his team\u2019s creation at the Astrobiology Science Conference<\/a> held last week.<\/p>\n

\u2026 Burn it up <\/p>\n

Our astronauts aren\u2019t necessarily stinking up the International Space Station (ISS) with dirty underwear and greasy hair. The interiors of spacecraft and the ISS are highly controlled, near-sterile environments. Although astronauts do regularly exercise to prevent muscle loss, they won\u2019t get as dirty as we normally would back on Earth, according to BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Water is also a complicated thing in space, explained Elisca Hicks, crew operations instructor at NASA, in a NASA podcast<\/a>. Notwithstanding the influence of microgravity on liquids, flowing water is out of the equation in these spaces, since we \u201cdon\u2019t want loose water flying out everywhere and then getting behind electronics or, you know, other stowage, and then it gets moist and moldy,\u201d Hicks said.<\/p>\n

There is some sense in which astronauts choose functional clothing that doesn\u2019t require frequent cleaning. But \u201cafter you can\u2019t use it anymore, you\u2019re going to be throwing it away\u201d when \u201cyour crew member makes a funny look at you going, \u2018I think it\u2019s time,\u201d Hicks explained\u2014that is, throw it out to burn up in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Beyond \u2018good enough\u2019? <\/p>\n

For all practical purposes, the status quo might be good enough if you can get past underwear fireballs in the atmosphere. But why stop at good enough? For instance, maybe astronauts headed for long-duration Mars missions want \u201clike a nice couch to sit on or a comfortable bed to sleep in, since there\u2019s gravity now,\u201d Xu told Gizmodo.<\/p>\n

\u201cHumans constantly shed bacteria and dust and skin cells,\u201d Xu added. On the other hand, \u201cfabrics are breeding grounds for microbes,\u201d he explained. Unlike the metals and plastic making up the ISS, fabrics are also layered, and these layers can hide or shelter bacteria. On Earth, we can simply open a window to air out any chemicals produced from cleaning agents. Obviously, we wouldn\u2019t really do that in space or Mars.<\/p>\n

The plasma treatment <\/p>\n

The main motivation behind the \u201claundry gun\u201d was to create a low-temperature method to sanitize fabrics. Previous experiments had taught Xu and colleagues that cold plasma efficiently killed most microbial species, although they weren\u2019t certain if results would be the same on fabrics.<\/p>\n

\"CottonCotton coupons prepared for treatment with the laundry gun. Credit: Gabe Xu\/University of Alabama in Huntsville, Propulsion Research Center <\/p>\n

For the latest experiment, the team used a mixture of helium, air, and water vapor. A high-voltage power source generates a room-temperature plasma jet that forms reactive oxygen species like ozone onto the fabric, which in this case were small cotton coupons. These compounds cause \u201coxidative stress\u201d that\u2019s fatal enough to the bacteria, Xu explained.<\/p>\n

Out-of-this-world laundry \"LictenbergA Lichtenberg figure created by the plasma on the fabric. Credit: Gabe Xu\/University of Alabama in Huntsville, Propulsion Research Center <\/p>\n

While promising, Xu told Gizmodo there are several hurdles to overcome before astronauts can take laundry guns to space. The experiment used the standard plasma jet used in labs, so it\u2019s not terribly difficult to source. However, it treats a very small area with a pencil-sized beam. The byproduct, ozone, kills bacteria but can also harm humans in higher concentrations.<\/p>\n

Going forward, the team plans to bump up the gun\u2019s size to about that of a soda can and install an innate filtration system to prevent ozone release. That may take some time, but the development certainly comes at a good time, as humanity\u2019s exploration of space becomes longer and more consistent. And when humans are out there, keeping them alive and healthy will be a different challenge, especially for places like Mars, Xu said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor this project in particular, I think it\u2019s important to understand that getting humans to Mars and to live for months is going to be hard,\u201d he concluded. \u201cIt will take many people and a multitude of solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As we saw with Artemis 2\u2019s toilet debacle, astronauts deal with lots of inconveniences in space. One particularly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[45811,18,44948,19,17,32434,133],"class_list":["post-505757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-astronaut-health","tag-eire","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-plasma-physics","tag-science"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116648545856360652","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}