So far, there is no practical solution for washing dirty clothing in space - mainly because there is not enough water available.

This is something that consumer goods company Procter & Gamble is giving some thought to.

Astronauts on the ISS space station put on their clothing several times, only to change them after a while with a new outfit.

The replenishment of textiles often comes along with other cargo on board various missile supply flights.

In the absence of washing facilities, clothing weighing around 70 kilograms per crew member is currently being transported to the ISS per year, P&G calculates.

And delivering new, clean clothing becomes all the more time-consuming when astronauts head for distant destinations such as the moon or Mars.

Roland Lindner

Business correspondent in New York.

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The group recently concluded an alliance with the US space agency NASA for its detergent brand Tide, which it has now also discussed at CES. Because he's already testing ways to clean clothing in an environment with limited water. This should not only help with future missions in space, but also provide approaches for detergent innovations that will be of use on earth.

Space is a major topic at CES for the first time this year, and P & G's washing project is just one of several examples.

For the first time there is also a small special show with companies that want to do business in space.

In the central square in front of the congress center there is even a life-size model of a spaceship that will fly to the ISS and other destinations in space in the future.

The presence at CES comes after a very eventful year for space travel.

A little bit of everything for everyone

Multi-billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson made trips into space themselves with their respective space companies Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic. Elon Musk's company Space X also completed a private voyage into space, during which he was not on board himself. All of these missions are seen as door openers for space tourism and may have contributed to making space travel more relevant to a wider audience.

The spaceship in the square in front of the convention center is called Dream Chaser and belongs to Sierra Space.

The American company is planning to use it to do supply missions to the ISS, and also has a corresponding order from NASA, similar to its competitor Space X, which has been doing such flights for years.

According to current plans, the Dream Chaser should take off for the first time at the end of this year.

Sierra Space sees the flights to the ISS only as one component in a much broader strategy, says John Roth, who is the vice president responsible for corporate development.

Future visions are becoming more concrete

Together with Blue Origin, the company is working on a commercial space station called Orbital Reef, which is to become a kind of industrial park in space. Pharmaceutical companies could one day manufacture drugs or 3D print things there. There are many production processes that could benefit from weightlessness in space, says Roth, and further applications are being researched. "There will still be a number of technical breakthroughs."

All of this also fits in with the vision of Jeff Bezos, the partner at Sierra Space, who has often spoken of a future in which many people live and work in space. Constructions developed by Sierra Space, which are intended as living and working spaces, are also to be part of the space station. They should be inflatable and extend over three floors. According to Roth, the station will be used by industrial customers, but also by NASA. The US space agency is looking for commercial alternatives to the ISS, which is due to be phased out by the end of the decade. It has also awarded contracts to Blue Origin and Sierra Space, as well as a few other providers. Orbital Reef should be ready for action before the end of the ISS, according to Roth. The Dream Chaser is to be used for the transport to the space station.Roth can imagine using it to transport space tourists as well.

 The German Bosch group is also showing a product in Las Vegas that is used in space.

It is a sensor system called "Sound See" that is used on the ISS.

With the help of artificial intelligence, it analyzes noises and tries to find anomalies that could indicate a need for maintenance.

This technology is also used elsewhere, such as diagnosing respiratory diseases by analyzing breath sounds.

A map service for satellites

Another exhibitor from the space segment is the Korean company Spacemap, whose business is based on the rapidly increasing number of satellites in space. With its “Starlink” project, for example, Space X is in the process of launching several thousand satellites into space in order to provide the earth with Internet access from there. The online retailer Amazon is also pursuing similar plans, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale.

Spacemap offers map services to satellite operators.

"We are something like Google Maps for satellites," says Peter JH Ryu, who works as a research engineer for the Koreans.

Among other things, Spacemap's technology should help avoid collisions between satellites.

Ryu sees CES as an opportunity to attract potential American customers.

And he says he hopes that will include Space X and Amazon in the future.