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Drinking Coffee From a Cup In Space

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the harder-than-you-might-think dept.

muggs was one of several readers to note a fluffy piece making the rounds about an astronaut inventing a zero-g coffee cup. Of course, since the space station inhabitants drink recycled urine, I'm still not totally convinced that I would want to try that cup.

5 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. What do you think you drink on Earth? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Unless you import virgin hydrogen and oxygen from a supernova, the water you had this morning has been through several organisms...

  2. Re:Normally they drink from a bag with a straw, bu by snowraver1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm having a bit of trouble picturing this...

    ... Which is why there is a video in TFA.

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  3. Re:Ignorant summary writer. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    He didn't say every molecule, he said every drop. There are a great number of molecules of water in a drop - All being mixed around like mad. Most likely, every drop of fresh water you can find has at least some recycled content.

  4. Re:Drinking Coffee From a Cup In Space by ctetc007 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yeah, that could work. Though I believe pressure inside the ISS cabin is even less than 1 atm, so it'll probably have to be somewhere around 5 meters or so to work.

  5. Re:Normally they drink from a bag with a straw, bu by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm having a bit of trouble picturing this...

    In case you can't view the video or the pictures:

      1) Take a piece of paper.

      2) Fold it in half but don't squash and crease it. The joined edges are flat together and the rest of the paper tries to form a gentle curve. The midline where the crease WOULD have been is trying to be a cylinder, but the curvature has to reduce, then reverse, to end up with the edges being flat together. The result is a pipe with a cross-section shaped like a tear drop.

      3) Now take your teardrop-pipe and fold one end closed. Squeeze the rest so the remaining opening in the other end stays open and teardrop shaped. This is your cup.

      4) When you fill it with liquid in zero-G the liquid attaches to the cup by surface tension. It is attracted most to the folded edge, because there's so much more surface in close proximity. Next most attractive area is the closed bottom, so the bulk of the liquid stays down there.

      5) Because the join of the edges is so attractive, the blob of liquid reaches an "arm" up the inside of the join, all the way up to the cup's opening. That's where you suck on it. It's like a virtual straw, which doesn't need to completely enclose the liquid.

    Make sense now?

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