Champagne in the space: a high-tech bottle gets a test flight



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On September 6, 2018, the French decorator Octave de Gaulle with his bottle of champagne Mumm Grand Cordon Stellar, designed to be poured in zero gravity

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Legend

Octave de Gaulle designed a bottle that dispenses champagne without gravity

Future space tourists will be able to sip champagne in orbit if a uniquely designed double-chambered bottle and "egg cup" glasses prove to be a hit.

On Wednesday, a specially equipped plane will take off from the heart of the French champagne region to test the new bubble distribution method.

The aircraft will perform a series of steep climbs before diving to create 20-second intervals of weightlessness.

The new design of the bottle was commissioned by the champagne house Mumm.

Journalists from several countries were invited to try champagne during Wednesday's flight aboard Airbus Zero-G.

The wine, which is in the upper part of the bottle, is released with a digital control valve that uses champagne-specific carbon dioxide to eject small amounts of foam.

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Legend

A bottle of champagne Mumm Grand Cordon Stellar, which will be tested in flight

Journalists can then consume the wine by picking it up with little long glasses

"They will not be forced to perform professional duties on board, so they will probably be able to drink some alcohol," said Astronaut Jean-François Clervoy, who runs the company that operates the Zero-G from Airbus. on the flight.

Mumm's team hopes it will be seen as a more elegant alternative to drinking straw.

The high-tech bottle, created by the French designer Octave de Gaulle, was not designed with professional astronauts, because alcohol consumption is not allowed for those who perform tasks on the International Space Station (ISS). ), for example.

However, it is thought that the possibility of civilian space travel promoted by private operators such as Virgin Galactic and the Blue Origin spacecraft of Jeff Bezos, the boss of Amazon, could possibly constitute a market for this product.

Is drinking in space a good idea?

In 1985, the US Federal Aviation Administration conducted a study to determine if alcohol consumed at simulated altitudes affected the performance of complex tasks.

In the study, 17 men were asked to consume vodka both at ground level and in a chamber simulating an altitude of 3,700 feet (3.7 km).

They were then asked to perform tasks including mental calculations, tracking lights on an oscilloscope with the help of a joystick and various other tests.

The researchers found that there was no discernible difference between the effects of alcohol on ground and space performance.

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