Coffee In Space
Originally Published: 28 May 2020
Mankind once achieved something revolutionary in space.
No, we're not talking about Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon.
This was the greatest enterprise of all time: the first espresso sipped in space.
THE FIRST BARISTA IN SPACE
On May 3rd 2015, Samantha Cristoforetti- the first Italian woman in space- became the first human to sip espresso in zero gravity.
Posing with her Star Trek uniform and espresso in hand, Christoforetti tweeted [quoting Captain Kathryn Janeway from Star Trek]:
"Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised." Fresh espresso in the new Zero-G cup! To boldly brew...
The only astronaut on board the ISS who knew how to use the ISSpresso machine, Cristoforetti expanded her space resume by being a barista for her colleagues.
Then in October 2017, astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) used the ISSpresso to celebrate International Coffee Day. The space machine's journey ended on the 14th of December, 2017. After 32 months in space, ISSpresso had completed its caffeinated orbit.
ASTRONAUTS MISSING COFFEE
The invention of the espresso machine 'ISSpresso'-nicknamed after the International Space Station (ISS)-was significant; astronauts and their coffee addiction seems to be a recurring theme in history.
Mike Collins- Apollo 11 astronaut- had a history of betting cups of coffee with his crew during their mission to the moon. In a log entry, Commander of Expedition 1 of the ISS- Bill Shepherd- wrote that coffee should receive its own storage locker. The crew's brew had ran out "halfway through the nearly five-month mission in 2000-2001." Then in June 2013, after only a week in orbit- Italian astronaut- Luca Parmitano- said that "the only thing I miss is a good Italian espresso."
Clearly, astronauts missed good coffee.
And so in the name of science and caffeine, Argotec created ISSppresso for Lavazza and the two embarked on a partnership with the Italian Space Agency. Together the Three Musketeers proved that: we build espresso machines in space and do the other things not because they are easy but because they are hard.
THE ISSpresso
Whether you use a French Press or a Chemex, what truly brews our coffee is gravity. ISSpresso defied gravity. Literally.
The manager of NASA Space Food Systems Laboratory- Vickie Kloeris- says: "You can't just send a regular espresso machine to orbit and expect it to work." The wonders of microgravity simply would not allow it. Indeed, it took Argotec two years to figure out how to make ISSpresso space-compatible. The final product was a capsule-based espresso machine, weighing 44 pounds. A normal espresso machine contains plastic tubes that can withstand 9bars of pressure for water to pass through. But this was no earthling. Replacing plastic with steel armour, these steam pipes could withhold 400bar of pressure. However, this revolutionary machine brewed espresso into- a less revolutionary medium- a plastic pouch. Like a Vampire Diaries blood-bag, Astronauts were expected to consume espresso by sipping through a straw in the pouch, which also allowed the partial emission of caffeine odour.
Physics professor Mark Weislogel, explains the difficulty of using a normal coffee mug in space. He says that putting coffee into a cup would be hard enough but even if that was hypothetically managed:
"You'd have to shake the cup toward your face and hope that some of the hot liquid breaks loose and floats toward your mouth."
Still, the ISSpresso was not destined to be drunk from a plastic bag.
ZERO-GRAVITY CUP
When Mark Weislogel- a professor of Thermal and Fluid Science at Portand State Univeristy- heard that the ISSpresso was being sent off with the expectation that astronauts would drink from a plastic pouch, he joked: “Since we are from Portland, that’s a crime against culture!” Weislogel had also worked with NASA for ten years and along with his team, took on a new caffeinated challenge: producing the zero-gravity cup.
The zero-gravity cup built upon the model of astronaut Don Pettit's low-gravity cup, which he co-designed onboard the ISS in 2008. The low-gravity cup holds the first patent for something solely invented in space. Shaped like a teardrop, six zero-gravity cups were sent to the ISS as part of the 'Capillary Beverage experiment' 2015. According to a NASA blog, such an experiment is crucial to space research:
"Perfecting these systems can also help us prevent disasters in orbit or on long-duration missions such as the journey to Mars. For example, the primary oxygen supply systems on many spacecraft use electrolysis. If the system gets a single air bubble lodged within its tubing, it can shut down until the bubble is found and removed."
While zero-gravity mugs may provide a premium coffee drinking experience in space, they clearly contribute to improving space research.
ZERO-GRAVITY HAND BREWER
If an espresso machine and space cup weren't enough…
Drew Wollman-a pHD student of mechanical engineering at Portland State University- along with Mark Weislogel, produced a space hand brewer in only a week upon astronaut Kjell Lindgren's request. This hand brewer was a modification of Weislogel's zero-gravity cup. After being destroyed in its first launch and delayed in its next, Lindgren managed to use the hand brewer only six hours before his scheduled landing back to Earth. Now that's what you call a real coffee lover. Wollan said: "The moon has one-sixth the gravity of Earth, oppose to zero gravity on the ISS…So Lindgren’s hand brewer will certainly be more functional when we go up there in 2024.”
BREWING A SPACE RACE
When SpaceX announced the scheduled launch of its first manned spaceflight, it received mixed reactions. Some critics are worried about the private sector commercialising space travel. With increasing commercial influence, it's likely that coffee companies will compete in their own space race to caffeinate astronauts. This would raise debates we already have on earth such as the ethical consumption of coffee; if coffee is to undergo expensive missions to space, the farmers who provide it should receive their fair share.
If the first espresso sipped in space was a small step, a giant caffeinated leap is yet to come.