Space Coffee, Just the Way You Like It 147
Zothecula writes "Since the early days of space travel, a consistent complaint has been lousy coffee. Now a group of freshman engineering students at Rice University have developed a simple approach to alleviating this problem. From the article: 'The challenge was to develop a method and equipment that allows astronauts to add liquid ingredients (cream, sweetener, and lemon juice) from a foil package to another that contains black coffee or tea. No spills in microgravity can be allowed, as these have a tendency to migrate into equipment and cause faults. The Rice freshmen designed their system around the existing black coffee pouches. NASA supplied them two-ply heat sealed pouches to hold the sugar syrup and cream. The beverage and condiment pouches all have a septum which allows access to their contents without allowing any of the liquid contents to escape.'"
Let's see them do a Tea Ceremony in space (Score:4, Interesting)
Something I got a kick out of was when Michael Stackpole wrote out an elaborate Japanese Tea Ceremony in Zero-G in one of his BattleTech novels. He didn't have to, but it was great reading.
Re:Customize? (Score:4, Interesting)
Or maybe you just have silly stereotypes about astronauts, and likely coffee.
So you think astronauts are not driven people who would gladly sacrifice their own body and long term health for the sake of the mission and being an astronaut? Do you really think coffee is that bad? I have worked in a major hospital and let me tell you....lots of Doctors and Nurses in that coffee line.