Whiskey samples will be sent into space in 2028 as part of the “Space Puffin“ experiment. Scottish and Japanese engineers plan to place the drink and its main ingredients in a small CubeSat satellite, which will spend five years in orbit around the Earth.
The plan is for the satellite to be launched with a SpaceX cargo mission to the International Space Station. After reaching the station, the CubeSat should be placed in orbit by its Japanese module.
The samples will orbit the Earth every 90 minutes
Scientists will observe how the whiskey is affected by conditions outside the Earth's atmosphere. The satellite will orbit the planet approximately every 90 minutes, and the samples will undergo sharp changes in temperature. It is expected to vary rapidly between minus 75 and plus 90 degrees.
The idea is that these cycles will accelerate the process known as “breathing” of whiskey when it is aged in wooden barrels. There will not be a whole barrel on board. The liquid will be stored together with small pieces of wood, which should resemble the interaction between the drink and the barrel.
During the five-year mission, the color and chemical composition of the samples will be monitored. This way, the team will compare the changes in the whiskey with the processes that occur during aging on Earth.
The experiment also has a broader scientific goal
The project leader is Dr. Gilles Baillet from the University of Glasgow. Students from Scotland and Japan are involved in the joint design of the miniature satellite.
“I hope the experiment will help speed up the aging of whiskey and make something more interesting“, said Bylet.
According to scientists, the experiment could also provide information about the operation of future orbital factories. They could develop molecules for drugs that are difficult to produce on Earth. Whiskey production serves as a recognizable model for observing chemical and biological processes in microgravity.
The first satellite will not return to Earth
CubeSat will not be recovered after the end of the five-year mission. This means that samples from the first experiment will not be bottled and sold as space whisky.
However, the team is considering a larger-scale project with a full production and aging system, including an entire barrel. Bylet believes that, if funding is secured, about a liter of whiskey aged in space could be returned to Earth in the future.
Such a product would likely have an extremely high price tag due to the cost of launching and returning. However, collectors already pay hundreds of thousands for some of the rarest bottles of whiskey. Before this project, the drink was sent to space for taste testing, but it did not leave the controlled environment of the International Space Station.
Source: btvnovinite.bg