Design, Flow Field Simulation and Launching Cost Evaluation of a Space Laundry Platform

The urgent request for micro-gravity laundry technologies should be satisfied, especially for long-term on-orbit habitats for astronauts. However, the traditional, ground-based laundry techniques could not operate properly in microgravity environments. In this paper, a laundry platform based on atomization and ozone-sterilization technologies was proposed. The platform uses ultrasonic arrays to atomize liquid water and facilitate better immersion of clothing in microgravity environments; the ultraviolet lights were implemented to generate ozone for disinfection. Simulations based on finite element method were applied to study the changes in relative humidity and ozone concentration during the laundering process. Parameters studies were conducted and the pre-fogging time and ozone lamp configuration were determined. Subsequently, the resource cost of the proposed laundry platform was evaluated using the equivalent system mass method. It was found that the resource cost of running the platform for one year in orbit was only 15.7% of that of the commercial laundry technology. By using the on-orbit laundry platform and recycling the clothes, a total amount of 61.9% of the equivalent system mass could be saved compared to disposing all the clothes. Through the analysis of the benefit-balancing time of on-orbit laundry technology and the cost of transporting consumable clothes, it is shown that in future deep space exploration missions, developing on-orbit laundry technology is a more cost-effective option than transporting clothes as consumables, as long as the mission duration is longer than 2.5 months for space station missions, and 2.5 months for deep space exploration missions. The work of this paper could set a milestone for the development of the microgravity laundry platform for our country.