As astronauts prepare for long-duration missions to the moon and Mars, sustaining human life far from Earth will depend on solving a gauntlet of technological challenges. Yes, researchers need to perfect the towering rockets and futuristic habitats that will keep astronauts safe on their journey to other worlds — but they’ll also need to figure out how to do the laundry.

Now, a new lab experiment that tested a water-free approach to doing laundry in space using controlled jets of supercharged plasma suggests the technique could help meet that challenge.