ISS Commercial Research That CASIS Utterly Ignores
Space whiskey returning to Earth soon (hurry, please), CNet
“In 2011, vials of Ardbeg scotch whiskey were sent to the International Space Station as part of an experiment to see how the spirits’ maturation process is affected by the near zero gravity of near space. Now it’s almost time for a homecoming.”
– Ardbeg Distillery Launches U.S. Rocket Tour Celebrating “World First” Space Experiment, earlier post
– An Actual ISS Commercial Experiment that NASA/CASIS Ignores, earlier post
– Whisky in Space: the Road Show – Update, earlier post
Keith’s 1 May 2012 note: Obvious jokes not withstanding [Larger view], this is an interesting commercial use of the ISS – if somewhat unconventional – one that has attracted actual private investment (from a high-quality, high-visibility, world-class manufacturer) at a time when NASA’s scorecard is rather lacking in this regard. Imagine this: an actual biotech process that is being investigated in the unqiue environment of space with significant commercial backing and promotion. Of course, the NASA ISS National Lab and CASIS folks seem to be totally uninterested in how real commercial space activities happen. A preview of things to come, I am afraid.
Oh yes: when I first posted this photoshopped image that I made a few weeks ago people within NASA thought it was real and started to try and figure out how it happend. Oops.
Remember the Coke versus Pepsi “experiments” on the shuttle pre-Challenger? Companies were competing to determine what would be the better design for an in-space soda can?
I actually had one of the Pepsi ones… remember mousse from the 80’s? Same can concept.
At any rate, it was hardly breaking new ground, hardly research, hardly finding new business methods and opportunities.
What it was was a marketing gimmick.
And this feels the same.
This is really some serious grasping at straws… maybe they don;t want to use this as a way of justifying the ISS because it’s transparently empty and embarrassing
I mean… come on now.
But do recall that CASIS got all exciting about some golf ball research they were sponsoring …
Just marketing. But what would be interesting would be to see how it is metabolized in weightlessness.
Actually this is some rather interesting biochemistry and it has implications beyond making something that is nice to drink. If CASIS can jump up and down about doing golf ball research in space then why are they ignoring this research? Answer: CASIS hasn’t a clue – they just make this all up as they go.