The space station finally earns its keep:
Compounds of unmatured malt were sent to the station in an unmanned cargo spacecraft in October last year, along with particles of charred oak.
Scientists want to understand how they interact at close to zero gravity.
NanoRacks LLC, the US company behind the research, has said understanding the influence of gravity could help a number of industries, including the whisky industry, to develop new products in the future.
And those silly people say that space research is a waste of money.
“Ask your doctor if whisky shots are right for you…”
Nah. I’m an empiricist.
“Do not continue whiskey shots if you experience…”
Weightlessness and can’t find a single blade of grass to hold on to so you don’t drift…
Let’s face it if we are going into space there will be a distillery. Ask any sailor.
And it will be one more item to store in the Fuel Depot. \
If they find any unique properties that can be brought to the whiskey through maturation in space it could become wildly profitable. Have you seen the price spike in Tequila since it became trendy?
So, how is ethyl alcohol and LOX as a rocket fuel vs. kerosene/LOX? Maybe the fuel depot could power more than one kind of liftoff…
CptNerd: Although the figures for combustion in liquid oxygen will be slightly different no doubt, combustion energies in air are 29.7 MJ/kg for ethanol and 43.1 (lower bound) for kerosene. Since kerosene is a mixture, the latter figure will vary slightly. (Brief Google search.)
I expected that, as ethanol is a partly oxygenated fuel.