July 31, 2009

"Astronaut Koichi Wakata didn't change underwear for a month."

"Wakata’s special clothing range was designed ... by the Japanese space agency, JAXA, and is known as J-Wear. Made of cotton and polyester with a silver coating that gives it its special properties, it also includes socks, T-shirts, trousers and leggings."

I don't know what your days-old underpants are coated with, but Wakata's are coated with silver!

28 comments:

Big Mike said...

I just want to know what his fellow astronauts had to say about working along side him in the confines of the space station for a month.

Not to mention his wife says about it.

Methadras said...

A month?!?!?! I don't care if they were coated with Rhodium, Platinum, Diamonds, and Gold. A month of wearing the same underwear is dang nasty. Period. Those damn Japs and their weird scat fetishes.

Leather Daddy said...

Let a man smell like a man!

Bissage said...

I’m sure JAXA shaved Mr. Wakata’s coin purse before he left so that’s cheating a bit, really.

Synova said...

He bathed as much as any astronaut bathes.

I'm not convinced that he didn't clean his underwear... it just didn't say. Just that he didn't change to new ones.

Cedarford said...

Japanese are working on a good technology badly needed in outer space, for what little manned flight can do better and cheaper than robots. How to prolong duration of use of "expendables" - in this case clothing that can only be worn a few days and when a pound of replacement stuff costs 40,000 dollars to send out of Earths gravity.

If the Japanese underwear experiment works? In a few years, everyone, if there is still a manned program left, will be wearing it.

Paddy O said...

And so we see the beginning of the end of the gnomes' money-making scheme.

chickelit said...

Without bacteria, poop is just sterilized dirt.

bearbee said...

Pic shows him smiling so it can't be too bad and underwear could be a boon for the incontinent.

Chip Ahoy said...

Coated?

Is this like the Oso Fresh™ food storage containers that contain micro particles of silver? (set of 36 available for $50.00)

Once Asimov wrote about something I thought very perceptive and I've thought about ever since. In one of his space novels the protagonist enters another space craft and remarks (to the reader) the first thing you notice is the smell of closed human habitation. Put me right off the attraction of space travel on the spot.

knox said...

"Silver Streak"

sorry

Chip Ahoy said...

D'oh! I meant to link, not italicize silver infused containers

BJM said...

Eeewww, eeewww, eewww.

Too much information!

James Wigderson said...

If not changing your underwear is the goal, I'd rather go commando.

Anonymous said...

This whole experiment sounds like a subplot in a manga comic.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The real reason for the experiment was to prevent an unauthorized use of a certain typewriter ;)

dbp said...

James Wigderson said...
If not changing your underwear is the goal, I'd rather go commando.

I think whatever garment comes into contact with that region counts as underwear.

Unknown said...

Hey, I've got some twenty year old Fruit of the Looms that can beat that record by a mile.

Jeremy said...

Just an observation, but it doesn't say which side of the underoos was coated in silver. I mean, maybe it's just a look he's going for.

-The Other Jeremy

Nora said...

I travelled to places where taking water purification tablets was advised. So I bought these. When I checked the content it said that active ingredient was Argentum. That was no surprise since I knew that silver was used to keep water fresh since ancient times. The surprise was that there was no some modern compound to perform this function.

It seems that Argentum works for maintaining body freshness as well.

garage mahal said...

This takes "yellow in the front brown in back" to whole new level. The way Jeremy put in his underwear on in the mroning. Not the Other Jeremy that is.

jag said...

If space travel means we won't change our underwear for 30 days, I don't want to go. Bring me back a nice (clean) tshirt.

AlgonquinS said...

Just turning them inside out, seems ... well ... dated.

Fred4Pres said...

You know Hanes and Fruit of the Loom are having secret discussions now to block this underwear from ever reaching the market.

Bissage said...

Dooes anyBody here wan to cvxv know what I’ve been doing all thi4s time?

NO slpp, er sleep sleep NO SLEEP!!!

No food!!! no booze NotjhiNG!!!ng!!!

Sitting here omnly Nothi elsez, either!!!

ALL Iz been doin is trying t to think of a joke about underpants and Mithril

MITHRIL

MITHRIL

But I gots NOTHING

NNOOTTHHIINNGG!!!!

NNNOOOTTTHHHIIINNNGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaahhah hhhhhhhh zzzzzzz hzhhh]]]hl;jkb56hhhhh dhhhhhh . . . . . . . .

chickelit said...

A future astronaut proposes to his fiancée thusly:

"Stick with me baby and you'll be farting through silver!"

Stephen said...

On doing the laundry: just hang it outside the window. Solar rays will ashify (note foreshadowing of Althouse August 1 theme) organics and kill bacteria. Also very green.

No laundry: dbp is correct - "I think whatever garment comes into contact with that region counts as underwear." Obvious solution - nude space travel. Double benefit of raising public support for space. Not only green, but pink.

すずらん said...

Nobody knows the technology used there. Silver ion (ag+) kills bacteria, and this has been applied to many Japanese products including cutting boards, deodorants, toothbrushes, masks, cloths used in hospitals, etc. Bacteria cannot multiply, so no odor comes out.