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Space ISS Japan

JAXA Prepares To Try Making Whiskey In Space 67

Posted by timothy from the deez-tilleries dept.
schwit1 writes: An experiment to test how whiskey ages in weightlessness is about to begin on ISS: "H-II Transfer Vehicle No. 5, commonly known as "Kounotori5" or HTV5, was launched on Wednesday from JAXA's Tanegashima Space Center carrying alcohol beverages produced by Suntory to the Japanese Experiment Module aboard the International Space Station, where experiments on the "development of mellowness" will be conducted for a period of about one year in Group 1 and for two or more years (undecided) in Group 2." Don't worry, the astronauts on ISS won't be getting drunk. After the test period is complete the samples will then returned to Earth, untasted, where they will then be compared with control samples.
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JAXA Prepares To Try Making Whiskey In Space More

JAXA Prepares To Try Making Whiskey In Space

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  • It was only a matter of time (Score:5, Funny)

    by dfn5 ( 524972 ) on Saturday August 22, 2015 @10:34AM (#50370117) Journal
    before NASA got into the Moonshine business. Astronaut Jim Bob was quoted as "I'd like to see those damned revenuers catch me here".

    • Re:It was only a matter of time (Score:4, Funny)

      by Adriax ( 746043 ) on Saturday August 22, 2015 @02:07PM (#50370833)

      There's one way to advance space flight and colonize the solar system. Moonshiners looking for a place to run their stills, and tax men following close behind.
      We'd have colonies on mars growing modified corn within 10 years.

      The other would be to allow porn to be made on the ISS.
      Nothing spurs innovation like the quest for kinkier smut.

      • Someone even wrote a book about that. I don't recall the title, but it was something like "Drugs, Sex, Rock and Roll: Advancing Technology Via Debauchery, Through The Ages".

        Well, the title was tamer than that. But that gives the flavor of the content. There was not much of a lag between the first photographs and the first "French postcards", between the first home video equipment and the first cottage industry porn, etc.

  • WHISKEY. IN. SPAAAAAACE!

  • SO? Can you (Score:3)

    by Grand Facade ( 35180 ) on Saturday August 22, 2015 @10:57AM (#50370183)

    grow better weed in space?

  • But what about the tiny screws? (Score:5, Funny)

    by wonkey_monkey ( 2592601 ) on Saturday August 22, 2015 @11:02AM (#50370199) Homepage

    Good to know they're not wasting time and money on trivial things that won't benefit the human race in any meaningful way.

    Next up: can ants be trained to sort tiny screws in space?

  • Astronauts Smith and Ivan blurted out "in free fall you have to wrap the neck of the flask, too."

  • They are missing a perfect opportunity... (Score:3)

    by mordjah ( 1088481 ) on Saturday August 22, 2015 @11:34AM (#50370315)

    to conduct testing on the effects of alcohol on the human body while weightless!
    Well... Can you come up with a better excuse...err.. reason to sample some of this before it leaves orbit?

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Areyoukiddingme ( 1289470 )

      They are missing a perfect opportunity to conduct testing on the effects of alcohol on the human body while weightless!

      You do realize half the station personnel at any time are Russian, right? And that they get a personal baggage allowance? Which is inspected by other Russians? That was practically the first experiment conducted on the human body in space, aside from just living and breathing.

      • They are missing a perfect opportunity to conduct testing on the effects of alcohol on the human body while weightless!

        You do realize half the station personnel at any time are Russian, right? And that they get a personal baggage allowance? Which is inspected by other Russians? That was practically the first experiment conducted on the human body in space, aside from just living and breathing.

        "Results inconclusive. More testing needed."

  • I love Scotch Whiskey (or the Japanese Scotch-style whiskey) but the doc says no more alcohol.

    Here on Earth we make non-alcoholic drinks by removing the alcohol. Typically this requires
    either high heat (ruins the taste) or high pressure (reverse osmosis).

    However, while we need high pressure because our atmosphere already has pressure, out in
    space they don't need very much pressure at all if they depressurize the low side of the
    filter. So they could set up a container with two chambers separated by an RO f

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by maeka ( 518272 )

      It would be a greater pressure differential than we can do here on earth -- 1 : near zero atmos
      vs N : 1 atmos.

      1 atmosphere of pressure is trivial.

      So insanely trivial that even come free energy and a space elevator it will be cheaper to pressurize a R.O. chamber on Earth to N+14psi than it will be to lift said chamber to where there is near zero atmospheric pressure.

    • So they could set up a container with two chambers separated by an RO filter and an air chamber, put it out in space, and let the vacuum of space draw out the non-alcohol whiskey.

      You would need a semi-permeable membrane which passed everything except (ethyl) alcohol. In particular, the higher alcohols and poly-alcohols which are major components of the flavours of whiskeys (real ones, or Japanese ones). That is actually a pretty severe requirement, because most semi-permeable membranes achieve their separat

  • Well-earned dividends (Score:3)

    by Waffle Iron ( 339739 ) on Saturday August 22, 2015 @12:08PM (#50370435)

    It's valuable technology spinoffs like this zero-g whiskey that justify the taxpayers shelling out over $100B on the ISS.

    If it weren't for our robust support of manned space flight, mankind might never get the benefits of zero-g wiskey, and that would be a shame.

    • Little do you know, space-whiskey actually grants immortality and mutant powers. This is the first step to the new Ubermensch empire.

    • It's valuable technology spinoffs like this zero-g whiskey that justify the taxpayers shelling out over $100B on the ISS.

      But if you get the taxpayers tanked on this stuff . . . they won't give a damn either way . . .

  • http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-s... [bbc.co.uk]

    Was done years ago with real malt whisky

  • Ardbeg has already been to the ISS and back...

    http://www.ardbeg.com/ardbeg/a... [ardbeg.com]

  • Some varieties of aquavit [wikipedia.org] are aged on a sea voyage to Australia and back again. On a sailing ship that usually meant a trip all the way around the world. A year on the ISS would be lots of trips around the world.
  • we've been testing if whiskey can make you weightless.
  • Truly, the ISS is the gem of human scientific endeavor in space. Was that actually the most interesting microgravity experiment that anyone could think of to fill that chunk of payload space; or are they trying to land some corporate sponsors?

  • "Oh don't give me none more of that Old Janx Spirit
    No, don't you give me none more of that Old Janx Spirit
    For my head will fly, my tongue will lie, my eyes will fry and I may die
    Won't you pour me one more of that sinful Old Janx Spirit"

    —An ancient Orion mining song

    Janx Spirit - almost exclusively referred to as "That Old Janx Spirit" - is an extremely potent alcoholic beverage, and is used heavily in drinking games that are played in the hyperspace ports that serve the madranite mining belts in the st

  • all those space Dollars finally put to good use.

  • Sounds like a publicity stunt.

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