What drink espresso on the ISS?

I think many people like these small, comfortable espresso cups. Of these, it is very convenient to get your portion of caffeine, and the “procedure” itself is a lot of fun. But drinking coffee drinks, including espresso, is not possible everywhere: for example, on the ISS, until recently, astronauts were deprived of this pleasure. Not so long ago, a special coffee machine was sent to the station, which allowed the astronauts to enjoy their coffee at any time of the day.

Nevertheless, certain difficulties have arisen here: after all, on the ISS, liquid products are usually supplied in special plastic tubes, from which the astronauts simply suck out the contents. But with a hot espresso you won't do that - what a joy to suck hot liquid out of a tube without feeling the aroma of coffee? And you can’t drink from a regular cup, here are your limitations. In general, it was necessary for the MKS to develop special dishes from which it would be possible to drink espresso. At the same time, a whole team of mathematicians and physicists was involved in the development of the tableware, which in detail calculated the parameters of space cups for espresso.

The appearance of such cups turned out to be quite strange, but here we are already accustomed to the unusual appearance of ordinary things.
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Each corner, the bending of the cups is calculated, there is not a single extra detail here. The front part of the “cup” is formed in such a way that an astronaut could drink coffee using his usual method, sipping a drink in small portions, without the danger of burning.

It is worth noting that the creation of such a cup required special knowledge on the behavior of liquids under micro-gravity conditions. Previously, the experts who created the space cup for espresso, and created a space toilet, where there are no moving parts, as well as the fuel supply system, where the fuel flows by itself.

The development of the cup began in 2008, then the project was suspended (there was no need for its implementation) and now the project was completed at an accelerated pace - because if there is a coffee machine sent by the Italians, you need to drink coffee from something, right? Of course, it would be possible to adapt an ordinary tube, pour coffee there, and wait until it cools down - but then the astronaut would be deprived of the pleasure to inhale the aroma of coffee and enjoy the foam.

In general, the life of astronauts is becoming more and more similar to the life of an ordinary person, although, of course, this is hard work, and not rest in zero gravity.