Coffee in Space: A Short History
The popularity and sensation of coffee has led to four out of every five Earthlings reporting enjoying a cup of joe on a daily basis. We love coffee in the way that it sets an amicable mood for our mornings, wakes us up, percolates our senses, stimulates our curiosity, invites new conversations, and motivates our passions. But, did you know that NASA and SpaceX astronauts and scientists made sure that coffee was accessible in space? With all of the intricate details and physics to ensure a safe voyage to space, coffee still made the list as an essential need for space travel.
Blasting back to the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, coffee was a part of the story. Michael Collins was an astronaut on Apollo 11, the one who remained in orbit, 60 miles above the moon in the Apollo command module, waiting alone for his crewmates, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, to return from the lunar surface. Mr. Collins did not mind his solitary time aboard the spacecraft, which was named Columbia. When recalling his experience, he said, “It was perfectly enjoyable, I had hot coffee, I had music if I wanted it… I was not one iota lonely. it was 40-something minutes of peace and quiet.”
Michael Collins day of the Apollo 11 launch.
Coffee on the spacecrafts is so important to the crew members, Bill Shepherd, the commander of Expedition 1 of the International Space Station (ISS), proposed an entirely separate storage locker for coffee when coffee rations ran out during a near five-month mission in 2000 and 2001. “Coffee is important to everyone,” said Scott Kelly, a retired NASA astronaut.
You might wonder, how can astronauts brew and drink coffee in a low gravity atmosphere?
Throughout the majority of space travel, astronauts traveled with instant coffee in an airtight pouch. To prepare their brew, they injected the bag with hot water and drank it through a straw. If they prefer their coffee with sweetener or creamer, that had to be pre-made back on Earth in a lab using predetermined ratios.
However, as the fascination, technological advances, and missions to space destinations continued, space-coffee brewing innovations coincided.
In 2013, Rice University engineering students designed new techniques for astronauts to make their own coffee in any way they want it and whenever they want it. They cleverly called it “Houston We Have Coffee.”
Then, on April 20, 2015, SpaceX delivered the new ISSpresso machine to the International Space Station, enabled astronauts to enjoy space-bound espresso.
Another more recent innovation has come from the minds of a team of researchers at Portland State University, who developed a coffee cup that gives astronauts in space an earth-like drinking experience by driving liquid towards the mouth. No longer do they need to drink coffee in a pouch through a straw. The Space Cup – designed by Mark Weislogel, Andrew Wollman, John Graf and Donald Pettit – was named best product at this year's Designs of the Year awards.
Thinking back to Michael Collins’ experience on the iconic day of the 1969 Moon Landing, I cannot think of a better way to start a morning than by kicking back with a cup of brown goodness, watching the Earth from a zoomed out lens. The sense of release and peace that would wash over me with the weight of the world off my shoulders, left alone with music and my thoughts, would be a dream come true.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/science/michael-collins-apollo-11.html
https://www.foxnews.com/science/apollo-11-astronaut-michael-collins-coffee