Astronaut: 1 Month, Same Underwear

[tomm2thumbs]

Designed to resist the rigours of lengthy space travel, the anti-static, flame-resistant, odour-eating, bacteria-killing, water-absorbent smalls have been put through their paces as part of a project aimed at ensuring that future space travellers will need only minimal space in their suitcases.

If Mr Wakata’s colleagues noticed that he had been skimping on his laundry, they were polite enough not to let on — and he refrained from bringing it up in conversation. “I haven’t talked about this underwear to my crew members,” he said during a pre-landing press briefing.

He added: “I wore it for about a month and my station crew members never complained, so I think the experiment went fine.”

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The bigger market will be for all-night internet surfers and professional couch potatoes - egadz.

Story link:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article6735088.ece

[rcrush]

1. I didnt know I had astronaut underwear this whole time!

[Speck Tater]

2. When I was a little kid I used to go all summer with the same socks and underwear.

We even wore the same underwear when we went swimming in the lake just about every other day, so I guess that almost counts as washing it three or four times a week. That was back in the late 40's and early 50's when kids weren't so pampered and fussed over. Our version of air conditioning was when the man who drove the ice wagon chipped off chunks of ice for us and wrapped them in paper towels. (If you've ever seen the old Our Gang movies, that was almost exactly the neighborhood I grew up in.)

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Emergency Workers, trust me, a few times that would have been

VERY HANDY.

Did I mention military personnel?

[amerikat]

4. So when are they launching the Laundromat module?

Wet clothes would dry instantly in the vacuum of space.

[MilesColtrane]

5. If you turn it inside out, can you get another month out if it?