ISSpresso

ISSpresso is the first espresso coffee machine designed for use in space, produced for the International Space Station by Argotec and Lavazza in a public-private partnership with the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The first espresso coffee was drunk in space by astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on 3 May 2015. ISSpresso is one of nine experiments selected by the Italian Space Agency for the Futura mission.

In 2014, Argotec and Lavazza partnered to determine the feasibility of the project. Argotec then approached ASI, with Lavazza as a partner, and ASI agreed to sponsor the ISSpresso as an ASI payload on the ISS. NASA approval was then obtained. During the same year a feasibility study with the creation of some subsystems was conducted in order to validate the technological choices. On 14 April 2015, the flight model of ISSpresso was sent with SpaceX CRS-6 to the International Space Station.

ISSpresso is designed to prepare espresso. Prior to this experiment only soluble coffee was available in space. The astronauts can select the drink of interest between the following options: short black (30 ml), long black (60 ml), and hot drink (tea or broth, 120 ml). It also has a flush cycle (60 ml) to clean the hydraulic circuit at the end of supply. The possibility of delivering broth allows for the rehydration of space food.

ISSpresso also offers the opportunity to study some physical phenomena related to the fluid dynamics in microgravity of (pure and mixed) liquids at high pressure and temperature. The analysis of the foam formation with respect to that of the terrestrial coffee was of particular interest, starting from the design of the system in order to obtain it in microgravity.

There are a number of aspects to espresso brewing and consumption that are related to or affected by gravity. One of the challenges was trying to produce the beverage in micro-gravity environment.

The first noticeable difference concerns the size and weight: 43 × 42 × 36 cm (17 × 16.5 × 14 in) and nearly 20 kg (44 lb). ISSpresso is heavier and more complex primarily because of the materials choice and the introduced redundancies to meet the safety requirements in all phases of the mission.

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Wikipedia