Invention of the space-coffee-cup


Marilyn sez, "NASA astronaut Don Pettit was tired of drinking from straws all the time in space, 'You feel like an insect sucking juices out of another insect,' so on a mission last November he fashioned a drinking cup that would work in zero gravity via capillary action. He used a sheet of plastic and some tape. You can see a photo of it on this National Geographic blog along with the mathematical calculations that explain how it works."

Don Pettit did a great interview on NPR's Science Friday about this and his other space-inventions.

No Gravity, No Straw: Birth of a Space Cup

(Thanks, Marilyn!)