Spinning Through Space: What It Would Be Like to Do Laundry in a Moon Settlement

Let’s say it’s the year 2085. You’ve just finished a shift tending to your hydroponic tomatoes in Lunar Settlement Alpha. You peel off your space-rated moisture-wicking jumpsuit, give it a whiff, and yep—it smells like robot-sweat and moon-mud (whatever that is). Time to do laundry. But hold up… how exactly does one do laundry on the moon?

It’s a question I hadn’t asked myself until recently, when I was folding socks and daydreaming under the buzz of fluorescent lights at my own laundromat. I looked at the spinning washers and imagined them floating off the ground. The hum turned into the silence of the lunar vacuum. And just like that, I was off… wondering, speculating, and tumbling through thoughts like clothes in a zero-gravity dryer.

Welcome to the wild, sudsy world of lunar laundry.

First, Let’s Talk Gravity… or the Lack of It

The moon’s gravity is about one-sixth that of Earth. That changes everything. Your laundry basket full of wet towels? Super light! But water doesn’t behave the same way. On Earth, gravity helps water pool, drain, and rinse. In a low-gravity environment, water floats in globs, clings to surfaces, and generally acts like an unruly toddler with zero boundaries.

This brings us to our first big lunar laundry challenge:

Challenge #1: How Do You Wash Clothes Without Water Flinging Itself All Over?

A typical washing machine on Earth relies on water sloshing, spinning, and draining away. On the moon, without gravity, those mechanics don’t hold up. Any water you use would need to be contained, managed, and recycled with extreme precision.

Could we develop a sealed, pressurized washer that uses atomized water mist and a combination of suction and spinning to clean fabrics? Possibly. Engineers are already exploring such devices for space missions. These would use minimal water—sprayed in controlled bursts—and ultrasonic vibrations or electrostatic forces to dislodge dirt.

And yes, the water would need to be reclaimed, filtered, and reused. Every drop counts when you’re living off-Earth.

Challenge #2: Could You Just… Hang Clothes Out to Dry in Space?

This one makes me laugh every time I picture it—imagine little shirts and socks pegged to a clothesline outside a lunar dome, gently swaying in… no wind at all.

But seriously—can you hang clothes out to dry on the moon?

Short answer: No. Long answer: Only if you’re okay with your t-shirt flash-freezing and then disintegrating into cosmic dust.

Why? Because space is a vacuum. There’s no air, no atmosphere, and no pressure. Water would sublimate—going from solid ice straight into vapor—almost instantly. Also, radiation and micrometeoroids pose a real threat. Your panties might get shredded by a stray grain of space rock traveling at 25,000 mph.

Challenge #3: How Would a Dryer Work in Zero Gravity?

Dryers rely on three things: heat, tumbling motion, and airflow. Let’s take each of those to the moon:

• Heat: Sure, we can still use thermal coils or infrared heat to warm the chamber.
• Tumbling: A spinning drum could work—but you’d have to strap the machine down. Otherwise, it spins you.
• Airflow: Tricky. In a sealed system, hot air has to circulate without escape, then the moisture has to be captured and recycled.

The key might be a closed-loop vacuum dryer—essentially a fancy dehumidifier that uses suction and heat to dry clothes in a zero-g-friendly way.

Could We Just Avoid Washing Clothes Altogether?

Oddly enough, this is a very real proposal.

Astronauts on the International Space Station don’t do laundry. They wear clothes until they’re filthy, then toss them in the trash (which burns up in Earth’s atmosphere). But that won’t fly on the moon. With longer missions and semi-permanent settlements, waste like that becomes impractical.

So, could we invent self-cleaning clothes? NASA is already developing fabrics coated in silver nanoparticles to resist odor and bacteria. We might also see wearable tech that detects sweat and releases neutralizing compounds—like a tide pod, but built into your shirt.

What About Lunar Water Supply?

Every laundry load requires water, and on the moon, that’s gold. Unless we can mine enough ice from lunar craters (a real possibility), we’ll need to ship water from Earth—astronomically expensive.

This makes waterless washing more appealing. Imagine machines that use carbon dioxide bubbles, ultrasonic cleaning, or even dry ice pellets to freshen clothes. One company on Earth already uses liquid CO2 cleaning for delicate fabrics. Maybe the future of laundry on the moon is already being prototyped in high-end fashion labs right now.

Would Moon Dust Ruin Everything?

Let’s not forget the moon’s most annoying roommate: regolith, a.k.a. moon dust.

It’s fine, clingy, abrasive, and electrostatically charged. It gets everywhere, including in your clothes, boots, hair, and lungs. Lunar dust is so sharp it can tear through space suit fabric over time.

Cleaning regolith out of your laundry won’t be easy. A normal rinse might just move it around. Instead, moon-settlers might need electromagnetic scrubbers or sonic cleaners that “shake” dust off before it even enters the machine.

Or perhaps a pre-laundry de-dusting chamber—a sort of lunar mudroom where you vacuum off your clothes in a swirling chamber of static-sucking air.

The Social Side of Moon Laundry

Laundromats are more than machines—they’re meeting places. Will lunar settlements have their own equivalent of the corner laundromat? Picture it: a sleek, metallic dome glowing with soft LED light, filled with humming pods, the quiet chatter of settlers, and a table with freeze-dried coffee and moon pies.

“Hey, you going to the lunar library after this?” “Nah, I’ve got another cycle—my jumpsuit smells like cheese again.”

I like to think we’d recreate those rituals even in space. Because even when we leave Earth, we take our human habits with us—including awkward eye contact in the sock-folding aisle.

Will There Be Laundry Robots?

Almost certainly. In fact, by the time we’re living on the moon, laundry might be entirely automated. Smart hampers could identify fabrics, scan for stains, and send your clothes through a robotic tunnel that mists, vibrates, dries, and folds everything before returning it to your living pod.

You might even subscribe to a “laundry pod” service—kind of like a dry-cleaning locker, but lunar. Drop your dirties in a chute, get a message on your visor an hour later: “Your garments are de-dusted and decontaminated, Hope. Have a stellar day.”

Could We Use Sunlight?

The moon has no atmosphere, which means intense sunlight—and long day/night cycles. One lunar “day” is about 14 Earth days long. That could make solar-powered laundry units a real thing, but it also poses risks: unfiltered UV radiation can damage fabrics, bleach colors, and cause materials to break down.

We’d need shields, filters, and temperature regulators to keep things safe. But the energy source? Practically infinite, assuming you don’t mind waiting a couple of Earth-weeks between cycles.

Will Lunar Fashion Change to Avoid Laundry?

Absolutely. When it costs millions to wash your socks, fashion evolves.

Lunar clothing might be made of anti-bacterial, self-cleaning, modular materials. Imagine a jumpsuit with removable “skins” that can be swapped out. Or clothes designed to last a month without needing a wash. Color-changing fibers could even signal when something’s dirty, based on chemical exposure.

And let’s be real: Velcro, zippers, and buttons might be replaced by magnetics or heat-sealed seams. Everything would be optimized for efficiency—unless you’re a lunar fashion rebel bringing back lace and linen, just to spite the system.

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Final Spin

Doing laundry on the moon would require an elegant mix of engineering, resourcefulness, and plain ol’ human stubbornness. It’s not just a technical challenge—it’s a social one. Because when we settle the moon, we won’t just need food, water, and oxygen.

We’ll need clean underwear.

And with that, I toss my last dryer sheet into the bin and watch the familiar hum of a spin cycle here on Earth. One day, someone might press “start” on a lunar washer and think of us—Earth’s first laundry dreamers—who dared to ask: can you hang socks out in space?

(Still no.)

Support The Laundry Club Blog: Because when the first lunar washer hums to life, someone’s got to be here on Earth making sure the spin cycle still makes sense.