"Wake up and smell the coffee" will soon be heard aboard the International Space Station, as an Italian company says it has designed a coffee maker that can work in the orbiting lab's zero-gravity environment.
Built by one of Italy's most successful coffee machine companies, Lavazza, in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency and aerospace engineering firm Argotec, the machine dubbed the ISSpresso will be install on the station later this year.
After a hard day of scientific research, station astronauts will be able to themselves to a coffee or expresso created by the 40-pound machine.
The ISSpresso can also brew tea, Lavazza says, as well as the broths used to rehydrate freeze-dried space repasts.
"Italian coffee is a beverage without borders and we have been thinking about taking the espresso into space for some time," Lavazza Vice President Giuseppe Lavazza said.
Currently undergoing testing in Argotec's laboratories, the machine, which utilizes pre-packaged capsules of ground espresso beans similar to a Keurig cup, will arrive at the ISS in November along with Italy's first female station astronaut, Italian Air Force Captain Samantha Cristoforetti.
She will be the third Italian ISS crew member, following Paolo Nespoli and Luca Parmitano of earlier crew missions.
Parmitano, after his stint on the ISS last year, said one thing he missed while aboard was a good cup of espresso coffee.
Cristoforetti will "not only be the first Italian woman to go into space, but also the first astronaut in history to drink an authentic Italian espresso in orbit," Lavazza said.
All the possible beverages produced by the machine are dispensed into a sealed plastic bag with a built-in straw, allowing the astronauts to relax and sip -- or at least suck -- their favorite brew.
ISSpresso has some modifications necessary for its orbital destination that set it apart from its Earth-bound espresso counterparts.
"The plastic tube carrying the water inside a normal espresso machine has been replaced with a special steel tube designed to withstand pressure of more than 400 bar," Argotec says. "The machine is so complex that it weighs about 20 kilograms since there are back-ups of all the critical components for safety reasons in accordance with the specifications agreed upon with the Italian Space Agency."
The redundant components have been considered necessary for more than just safety reasons, given that the nearest espresso machine repairman is, well, not that near.
