Egomaniac billionaires are racing to get into space (Musk, Branson, Bezos – there’s even a petition trying to stop him coming back) and now the venerable Proceter & Gamble has entered the space race with a new iteration of Tide (its 70-year old washing powder), namely: ‘Telescience Investigation of Detergent Experiments.’
Telescience being “remotely controlled scientific experiments,” rather than something they’ve made up.
Apparently the boffins in Cincinatti have worked out that astronauts need to take 160lbs of clothing with them as they need to chuck it away after a few uses. Clearly an opportunity for Tide then. There’ll also be Tide To Go Wipes and Tide To Go Pens and no doubt other handy products, depending what astronauts get up to.
It’s not just an expensive way into quite a small market however. P&G says: “We are eager to apply our learnings from our partnerships with NASA and the ISS National Lab to Tide on Earth, developing a low-resource-use laundry solution for everyday use while meeting consumer demand for more sustainable products.”
that’s what we call new product development.
