Posted on 08/22/2015 12:05:35 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Tokyo-based Suntory Global Innovation Center, which has a division called Suntory Whiskey, launched a set of alcoholic beverages toward the International Space Station on Wednesday (Aug. 19) aboard Japan's fifth H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-5). The booze includes five different types of distilled spirits, Suntory representatives said.
The robotic HTV-5 is scheduled to reach the orbiting lab on Monday (Aug. 24). But astronauts will not crack open a bottle to celebrate the freighter's arrival; the liquor is flying for purely scientific purposes. Suntory plans to conduct future experiments to see how the "mellowness" of sprits is affected by microgravity and a lack of convection (the flow of heat through a liquid or gas). (In addition, the International Space Station is officially a "dry" facility, so drinking alcohol is not allowed.) [The Evolution of Space Food in Photos]
"With the exception of some items like beer, alcoholic beverages are widely known to develop a mellow flavor when aged for a long time. Although researchers have taken a variety of scientific approaches to elucidating the underlying mechanism, we still do not have a full picture of how this occurs," Suntory representatives wrote in a statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
they call it “mellow yellow” so to speak.
Quite, right slick
Finally we’re getting somewhere.
Boehner’s all for this project.
I was hoping someone would say that..!
what could possibly go wrong?
Personally I believe that the astronauts up in the space station find a way to drink alcohol now and then. Just consider: you have a group of extremely bright people with mad technical skills, stuck in a small space for months on end. I’m sure they cooked up some shitty, pasty, tube food and put it in a still to make alcohol.
Wow, talk about getting high ...
lol!
Marines on the USS Frederick “found a way” back in the day. Just saying....
That, and yeast can always be smuggled on board, one way or another.
...there’s no crying space...
Can’t wait to see the price tag on whisky with “zero-g finish maturation”.
It will be astronomical.
It’s a stunt.
I think.
the liquor is flying for purely scientific purposes.
I thought the term was “only for medicinal purposes”
In space nobody can hear you -— drink Jap whiskey?
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