Beer in Space
Mark Tumarkin

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SCIENTISTS PUT BEER ON TAP BEER IN SPACE
Dutch scientists have found a way to serve beer in space, but after 
three and a half years research haven't quite figured out how to put a 
good looking head on that beer. The British publication New Scientist 
reported that researchers at Delft University of Technology cracked the 
No. 1 challenge: getting the beer out of the barrel. On Earth, an inert 
gas such as carbon dioxide is used to force the beer out of a keg and 
through the tap. But in space, the liquid would float around idly 
inside the barrel, which means that as much gas as beer is likely to 
come out of the tap. "It has a flexible membrane, which contains the 
beer, inside the barrel," project supervisor Kajsa van Overbeek 
explained. "Normal air is pumped between the barrel wall and the 
membrane to force the beer out." The team tested their invention at 
conditions near zero gravity. They were surprised to find that the beer 
plopped neatly out of the tap in identical, ping-pong ball-sized 
amounts. But there was no foamy head on the beer. Gas bubbles need 
gravity to rise.

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