JAXA Prepares To Try Making Whiskey In Space 67
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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Re:drunks.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Was the author drinking, whiskey when they titled this submission
I would think so, given that they are shipping already created whiskey up there to sit in zero G... This is about aging booze in zero-G, not creating it there. Having toured a distillery, I can tell you gravity is a very required component in fractional distillation... And during aging gravity helps move the alcohol inside the barrel, via convection.
The title really had me thinking about how you do fractional distillation when there's really no force separating liquid from vapor. Maybe you could use a laser or concentrated sunlight to heat the outside edge of a floating glob of wort and draw the vapor off with vacuum device... I don't think heating the whole mess to boiling would be very productive.
One interesting thing about getting out of a gravity well is everything we ever did before has to be adjusted for the lack of this pull we have been tied to forever. Maybe new alloys could be formed, or other chemical reactions might produce altered results, all from the lack of having a separating force missing from the process.
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Well, for maost everything that we use gravity for, a centrifuge can do the job better. It's just that we have free gravity everywhere on earth, so building centrifuges isn't cost-effective unless gravity just isn't up to the task. In space, well, suddenly centrifuges have a lot more to offer. Which is why the traditional science fiction space station spins.
Where things get interesting is, as you point out, exploring what's possible in freefall.
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One interesting thing about getting out of a gravity well is everything we ever did before has to be adjusted for the lack of this pull we have been tied to forever. Maybe new alloys could be formed, or other chemical reactions might produce altered results, all from the lack of having a separating force missing from the process.
Interesting thoughts.
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It was only a matter of time (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It was only a matter of time (Score:4, Funny)
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.
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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.
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Even origami. http://evil-inc.com/comic/dirt... [evil-inc.com]
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That is a good title. Now all you need to do is write the book. Guaranteed best seller.
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So much better than the goatlemongirl posts we used to get...
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You are all, cows. Cows, say moo. MOOOOOOOO! MOOOOOOO! Moo, cows, moo. Moo say, the cows. YOU, COWS!!
Moocow man meets the Golden Girls
Thank you for being a cow,
Feeding everyone from then to now,
You taste real good, boiled or broiled you're a tasty treat,
And if we held a barby
and cooked you up so carefully,
You would see the biggest burps would come from me,
and then all my guests would say,
Thank you for being a cow.
I believe you mean ... (Score:2)
SO? Can you (Score:3)
grow better weed in space?
But what about the tiny screws? (Score:5, Funny)
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?
I For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords (Score:2)
hail ants
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People spend very large sums of money on "special" whiskies. Space Whiskey would be highly prized, providing the taste is reasonable.
If people can't work out how to make money in space, space exploration will slow down or stop completely.
There is a difference between genuine economic activityy in space and ripping off gullible idiots.
Astronauts Smith and Ivan blurted out (Score:2)
They are missing a perfect opportunity... (Score:3)
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?
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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.
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"Results inconclusive. More testing needed."
Alcohol-free Whiskey (Score:2)
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
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Ignore the doc. You will die anyway.
Yeah, YOLO right?
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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)
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.
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Little do you know, space-whiskey actually grants immortality and mutant powers. This is the first step to the new Ubermensch empire.
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Indeed. The that's why this nation's founders defined the three major functions of the federal government:
1. National defense
2. International relations
3. Assisting the foreign high-end liquor industry in any way possible
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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 . . .
Big Deal (Score:2)
Was done years ago with real malt whisky
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Ardbeg... (Score:2)
Ardbeg has already been to the ISS and back...
http://www.ardbeg.com/ardbeg/a... [ardbeg.com]
They should try this with Aquavit (Score:1)
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It is truly amazing how many people in the world do not know the difference between "Whisky" and "Whiskey"! Of course, the US blurs the distinction, as different whiskies distilled here, use different spellings!
For the misinformed among us:
Scotland, Japan, Canada, (Some) US and others use "Whisky".
Ireland, (Most) US, and others use "Whiskey"
Meanwhile on Earth... (Score:2)
Fantastic. (Score:2)
Janx Spirit? (Score:2)
"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
at last (Score:2)
all those space Dollars finally put to good use.
Hard hitting science (Score:2)
Hence, Lavian Brandy was born! (Score:1)