There are many earthly comforts that astronauts have to give up when they go to space. Thanks to the ISSpresso, coffee is no longer one of them.
The International Space Station received the espresso machine last month alongside several experiments aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft. Dubbed ISSpresso, the espresso machine was made by Lavazza in cooperation with Argotec, an engineering company based in Turin. More than just bringing coffee to space, the ISSpresso was sent to the ISS as a means of helping astronauts deal better with homesickness.
The first coffee machine to function in microgravity, the ISSpresso uses a capsule system just like coffee capsule systems on the planet. The difference is that the espresso maker has been tweaked to account for fluid dynamics in space, allowing it to handle liquids at high temperatures and high pressures.
The ISSpresso uses one coffee capsule for serving, much like its counterparts on Earth. Water is aspirated, pressurized by a unique electrical system before being heated. Coffee granules mix in with the hot water and then are piped into a pouch fastened securely to the espresso machine.
It was supposed to arrive earlier in the year but the ISSpresso's trip to space got delayed after a launch explosion derailed a mission to bring supplies to the ISS. Now that the coffee machine is in place, it's intended recipient, European Space Agency's Samantha Cristoforetti, has finally taken her first sip of coffee in space.
Cristoforetti took to Twitter to share the experience.
"Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised. Fresh espresso in the new Zero-G cup! To boldly brew..." she wrote in a post, tweeting a photo with her first cup of coffee at the ISS.
According to Dan Hartman, NASA's space station program deputy manager, psychological support for astronauts is very important. If the espresso machine earns a lot of great comments from crew members, then that's a good thing. He likens the experiment with the ISSpresso to the kind of boost bringing ice cream to the ISS gives.
The last resupply mission that brought the ISSpresso to the space station also delivered a number of experiments for Scott Kelly, the NASA astronaut who will be staying at the ISS for a year. Kelly's year-long stay is the first in history and is geared at providing insight on long-term space travel.
The spacecraft involved in a recent Russian resupply mission was unable to dock with the ISS on April 28 when its data telemetry went bad and controllers lost communication with the spacecraft after its launch. The craft is expected to burn itself out upon re-entering the Earth's armposhere.
