Free Astronomy Magazine July-August 2014

ASTRONAUTICS café”where work-weary astronauts can get together for a little distraction between a task and another. Every extra moment of socialization is regarded by most psychol- ogists of space agencies an aspect that should not overlooked in missions that keep astronauts away from home for many weeks or months, during which they must perform tasks that require high levels of concentration. To cater for all tastes, ISS- presso has not been conceived solely as a machine for making espresso coffee, but also for serving “caffè lungo” (black coffee, although black is only in the name as it is almost transparent), tea, herbal infusions, broths, and it can also be used to rehydrate freeze-dried foods. Since ISSpresso is built with highly techno- logical components so as not to require special maintenance or servicing, apart from replacing consumables, it is expected to remain operational on the ISS for many years before being replaced if needed. Clearly, the ISSpresso operation goes far beyond the simple desire to provide some extra pleasant moments of leisure to the space station crew. In fact, both for Argo- tec and Lavazza, besides an immediate ad- vertising return there is also the possibility to apply the solutions devised for ISSpresso for designing and developing other, more profitable products, so much so that some of those solutions have already resulted in international patents. A lready 10 years ago Giuseppe Lavazza fantasized about the possibility of sending his cof- fee into space, as confirmed by this work of Thierry Le Gouès, taken from the 2004 Lavazza calendar. Those fantasies are about to be- come reality. [Lavazza] n