The coffee cup for a zero g situation
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
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Astronauts may have the very cool job of floating around in space, but when it comes to grabbing a caffeine fix, they are faced with the decidedly uncool prospect of drinking out of aluminum bags with straws. Donald Pettit was on Space Shuttle mission STS-126 when he decided enough was enough and came up with the idea of an "On-Orbit Coffee Cup" designed to hold liquid in zero gravity situations.
In Pettit's design, liquid would be held in the narrow bottom of the cup by surface tension. A deep groove in the side of the cup would act as a wick, drawing liquid towards the top where a depression in the lip of the cup would retain beads of coffee - or other liquid.
The design raises questions, not the least of which is: how do you get the coffee into the cup in the first place? (Perhaps Gizmag readers can supply an answer?)
A prototype of the cup has yet to be built, and tested, and one hopes they try it first with cold liquids!
Karen Sprey
In Pettit's design, liquid would be held in the narrow bottom of the cup by surface tension. A deep groove in the side of the cup would act as a wick, drawing liquid towards the top where a depression in the lip of the cup would retain beads of coffee - or other liquid.
The design raises questions, not the least of which is: how do you get the coffee into the cup in the first place? (Perhaps Gizmag readers can supply an answer?)
A prototype of the cup has yet to be built, and tested, and one hopes they try it first with cold liquids!
Karen Sprey
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