Innovative Cleaning of Crew Clothing by Microwave

Currently, there are no in-flight laundry capabilities.  All clothing is intended for a single use, and then becomes trash.  The ability to launder clothing would dramatically increase the useful lifetime of the item, decreasing the amount of clothing needed for a mission.  The result would be a reduction in the up-mass for the mission, and a reduction in the waste volume that needs to be stored in-flight.  The innovative laundry method that will be investigated in this study will be cleaning clothes with microwaves.  The microwave method uses the heating of dampened clothing by microwaves.  Evaporative drying will also occur, which will aid in water recovery.  This method will use very little water, and will not use solvents or detergents which would burden a water recovery system.