NASA’s space cup is almost witchcraft, makes drinking coffee in zero-gravity effortless

Astronauts usually surmount this difficulty by using straws to drink from sealed pouches that contain water. But based on recent experiments conducted by NASA, there may be a new way to drink liquids in space–a sci-fi super cup.

In the demo by NASA astronaut Nicole Mann above, you can see her using a cup that takes advantage of fluid dynamics and something called “capillary action” to drink a hot cappuccino while on the International Space Station.

Classic cappuccino, meet the space cup. ☕🤝

This demo shows the Capillary Beverage investigation which studies the process of drinking from specially designed Space Cups that use fluid dynamics to mimic the effect of gravity. https://t.co/xFGFTva2Bw pic.twitter.com/M7TQmIwlrC

— ISS Research (@ISS_Research) March 2, 2023

According to the space agency, the cup functions just like cups here on Earth, but instead of relying on gravity, it uses a combination of surface tension, wetting and cup geometry to keep the liquids in place.

The use of this special cup will allow astronauts to drink a variety of liquids while they are in space, from simple ones like water and juice to more “complex” fluids like cocoa, coffees, espressos and fruit smoothies. Apart from making life easier for astronauts, this technology could also potentially help reduce the volume and weight of drinking bags that need to be sent to space.