Donald Pettit, a NASA astronaut, got fed up with drinking water from a bag through a straw on the International Space Station. So he took recycled Mylar sheets and Kapton tape and put together a homemade cup prototype.
space cup which can hold coffee without gravity
by in Damnthatsinteresting
The trick lies in a pointed corner at the center of the container. There, gravity is not in charge; surface tension is: as soon as your lips touch the rim, the liquid rises on its own and forms bubbles of coffee that you can sip, as if the cup had an invisible wick.
"We take gravity for granted. Generally, we are not aware of the weight of our hands or how easily we pour coffee into a cup. We do not stop to think: ‘Will the coffee rise and spill?’ or ‘Will we be able to pour it?’. We simply do it. Gravity takes care of this for us, exerting force on the coffee and pulling it downward".Donald Pettit
Engineer Mark Weislogel refined the design with 3D printing, and today there is even a ceramic version that has already flown into space. It is the first patented product created in orbit, and it all began because an astronaut wanted to have a coffee like on Earth.
