Ballantine's

Now that we've taken whisky into space, the next logical step is surely to engineer a glass that allows astronauts to have a tipple in microgravity.

Spirits company Ballantine's has risen to the challenge and created a glass that it claims will work in space after testing it in the microgravity environment of the Zarm Drop Tower in Bremen, Germany.


Ballantine's has kept the traditional shape of a whisky glass, but given it a suitably futuristic makeover. The curved vase of the glass has been crafted from rose gold. Although on Earth this makes it feel extremely weighty when it's resting in the palm of your hand, microgravity negates this. Gold is the ideal material to use, says Ballantine's, as it's highly unreactive and therefore unlikely to affect the whisky's taste.

Ballantine's

The gold spiral convex base plate creates enough surface tension to hold the alcohol in a reservoir at the bottom of the glass. A channel in the shape of a helix then carries the whisky up the glass to the mouthpiece -- which again is made of rose gold.

The designers needed to consider not only how the whisky would get out of the glass, but how it would get in there in the first place. To tackle this problem they created an insert nozzle that can be inserted into a one-way valve in the bottom of the glass. Also in the base is a 10kg pull magnet, which allows the glass to be docked on metallic surfaces to stop it floating away.


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Getting the whisky into the glass and drinking it has been engineered according to a four-step process, according to James Parr from the Open Space Agency. "Motion one pulls the whisky into the base of the glass, then motion two is to roll the whisky in your hand and let the heat transfer through the metal base into the liquid itself. Step three involves then moving the glass down prior to moving your nose into the space where the vapours are resting. The final motion is to move the glass upwards to capture the liquid in the base plate and let it enter your mouth."

While there may currently be whisky in space, it may be years until people are going to be drinking at microgravity bars. As such the Ballantine's has created a whisky especially for drinking in space that can also be drunk on Earth for the time being.