This is the dawn of a new era: freshly brewed coffee on board the International Space Station is served in specially designed microgravity cups printed on a 3-D printer.
"Coffee is the best hot drink ever made. Now we can safely make a fresh espresso in a new Zero-G cup!", Wrote the European Space Agency astronaut Sam Cristoforetti, who took a selfie while enjoying the coffee ISSpresso.
Delivered to the ISS last month by the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship, ISSpresso is a microwave-sized machine that is a joint product of the Italian coffee company Lavazza, the design company Argotec and the Italian Space Agency. Since Cristoforetti was the only Italian on board, she was the first to take a historical sip. Interestingly, freshly brewed coffee is only half the story. A specially designed coffee cup made on a 3-D printer was also used in the Cristoforetti photo shoot.
The coffee cup was designed to use the surface tension of the fluid inside the cup, allowing the crew to drink from the cup.
The cup design was originally coined by NASA astronaut Don Petit, who spent some time on the ISS in 2008.
