Proposes to use CO2 for cleaning

• The days of astronauts packing enough clean clothes to last a whole mission could soon be over as Russia said that it is developing a washing machine for space.
• The RKK Energiya space corporation that builds spacecraft dropped a brief mention of the innovation in a video posted on YouTube.
• Currently, astronauts — who live on the International Space Station (ISS) for stints of some six months — cannot wash their clothes in any way and simply put on new outfits when their clothes get dirty.
• In 2017, a Russian space industry journal published a paper by RKK Energiya researchers with a description and diagrams of a washing machine that could be used on the ISS.
• It said that for three crew members, up to 660 kg of clothes have to be ferried to the ISS over a year.
• Researchers proposed using not water, which would be wasteful and require extra storage, but carbon dioxide that is produced by humans’ breathing and can be turned into a liquid under pressure.

The Hindu