Colgate-NASA act to advance personal care solutions for space and Earth aboard ISS

12 Dec 2022 --- The Colgate-Palmolive Company and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have signed a contract to investigate ways to improve skin, oral and personal care for both astronauts in space and people on Earth. 

Dr. Cady Coleman, a former astronaut, will collaborate with Colgate as an advisor to help direct R&D and provide viewpoints on the reality of space travel and life in microgravity.

“The International Space Station (ISS) is our testing ground for future missions to the Moon and Mars and provides an important opportunity to understand how we can optimize crew health and performance in microgravity,” Coleman says.

“Like so many of the investigations that we conduct in space, this work can also lead to discoveries that will advance health and well-being for everyone here on Earth.”

Over the course of two space shuttle missions and a six-month expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), where she served as the lead robotics and lead science officer, Coleman logged more than 180 days in space.

Launching the Space Act
Through the Space Act Agreement (SAA) Colgate and NASA will work together to test technologies that could help preserve or enhance the health and well-being of future space travelers in low orbit, either before, during or after long-duration missions. These technologies span oral health, skin health and personal care product categories.

Coleman collaborates with Colgate to provide viewpoints on the reality of space travel.Additionally, the arrangement enables Colgate to use the ISS as an experimental testing facility, permitting the company to make discoveries and inventions that will advance the health and well-being of consumers.

Colgate and NASA are also bringing sustainability into orbit through their partnership. The hygiene company and space organization will work together to evaluate sustainability ideas that are appropriate for use in space, including waterless tablets and compact packaging technologies.

Ingredient limitations 
Colgate and NASA aim to jointly conduct research in the areas of oral care advancements and connected health technologies, preventative and therapeutic skincare technologies, low-water products and more environmentally-friendly packaging appropriate for space travel and life in low Earth orbit.

“I’m excited to see how the understanding of the peculiar conditions of space travel can yield impactful insights and solutions for all people to have a healthier future whether they’re traveling to space or going about their day right here on Earth,” says Stephan Habif, chief technology officer at Colgate. 

Earth is endangered by climate change, therefore, it benefits from the development of space-like solutions such as waterless personal care products. In autumn, NASA and SpaceX launched Crew-5 into space with Kao’s waterless 3D shampoo and laundry sheets as an alternative solution to the exhaustive care regimes astronauts have to follow to maintain hygiene.

Apart from the lack of resources astronauts are faced with in space, they’re also exposed to dangerous UV rays and as the Earth’s ozone layer continues to deteriorate, consumers are demanding UV protection products to avoid the damage these rays pose to skin. Solutions developed for astronauts can be put to good use on Earth as well.

Hygiene in zero-gravity
The SAA marks the beginning of the next phase of Colgate’s off-planet activities, which were launched when the company carried out two distinct studies in the microgravity environment of the ISS.The arrangement enables Colgate to use the ISS as an experimental testing facility.

To better understand how plaque develops in microgravity, it launched the first-ever dental care experiment from the private sector in 2021 from the ISS. Similarly, delving into the science behind how microgravity affects skin-related genes and general skin health, the company’s PCA skin brand began the first private sector skin health experiment on the ISS earlier this year.

Scientists from Colgate are currently examining the results of both research to see how they might improve product compositions in the future to help astronauts with their space hygiene demands.

Interplanetary experience
As a strategic advisor to Colgate, Coleman will meet with the company’s R&D teams throughout the year to provide her expert knowledge and distinct viewpoint as a scientist and an astronaut with months of space travel experience.

Coleman depends on her expertise as a polymer scientist who served in the Air Force as well as her 24-year employment at NASA, where she provided significant experiment creation and problem-solving consulting.

Coleman carried out more than 100 different experiments during her three space trips. Designing and scalability testing for the then-under-construction ISS was the focus of her first space shuttle mission, STS-73.

By Mieke Meintjes