Infinite Improbability Drive?
I thought a good hot cup of tea is what you needed for interstellar travel.
A critical issue standing between humanity and its manifest future - that is to say, the availability of decent coffee in space - has been solved with the invention of an espresso machine which it's planned to send up to the International Space Station (ISS), groan-inducingly dubbed the ISSpresso. Italian astronauts Paolo …
"The machine's saving grace may be that it is said to be capable of making other beverages, such as tea or even broth. The latter sounds rather sensible: a nutrient-rich capsule that could be turned into a simple meal sounds like a handy way to reduce the amount of food that needs to be hauled aloft. ®"
Ah, yes, something that tastes almost, but not completely, unlike tea.....:)
Or, to quote a long-extinct Bloom County comic strip: "In space, it's never Miller Time"....(problem with a carbonated beverage in a vacuum....unintended propulsion, etc.)...
Paris, because she has espresso before prosecco, and her means of propulsion are often quite expensive too....
On the other hand, it looks like Keurig may have beaten them to it (via Think Geek, erm, on 01.04....)
Keurig K-cup™ 5-Star Meals... :) Gotta love them CornDogs....with a salad on the side...
Ok.. $80,000 for shipping coffee maker/espresso machine. Kinda' pricey in my book (the shipping at least). So questions:
Does it do latte?
Figure $4000 per kg to ship one kg of coffee... French roast or Starbuck's finest?
What do they do with the grounds? Send them back? Toss them out the window?
"Compost for the hydroponics obviously. " Unfortunately it sounds like its a 'pod' machine, so no composting here, just more plastic to throw away...
What they really need is a decent bean to sippy-cup (well you cant use a normal cup) machine, then the grounds can be used for compost in experiments!
I'm suprised that comment didn't get made sooner, to be honest, given the headline.
Lavazza coffee already tastes like it's been made with urine, or worse... but I'm not sure if that's because it's bad coffee or just that the Italians keep all the good stuff for their own consumption and export the dregs to the UK.