The link below takes you to a brief article and video on an astronaut's MYOG space coffee cup. Could the idea have any worthwhile applications for the backpacking community? Would love to read your responses and ideas. I'm thinking the gram counting will be the initial interest catcher for this thread; not sure tackling zero g has any specific use for terrestrial explorers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/10/zero-g-coffee-cup-pettit_n_1267919.html

Patrick - thanks for posting. Interesting.

Like a sawed-off platypus bag used as a bowl/cup, it is lightweight, and packs down to nothing. For most things, I'd like a round cross section instead of an airfoil cross section, but the acute angle on one side of his would allow it to be used like a funnel to pour into a small opening. It would also give the "cup" some stiffness and maybe be better for drinking hot liquids - you could control drinking rate much easier and without noisy slurping off the surface. If I was taking two eating/drinking containers, I could see using a round bowl for solids and an airfoil cup like this for liquids.

It would also be easy to make in any size in a normal vac-packer because you're only pressing two sides together from the outside - not forming a cylinder which you can't do with a vac-packer.

Thanks for your insight David. It is just "Like a sawed-off platypus bag used as a bowl/cup" in the shape of an airfoil! That is too funny. Being a video shot in space I guess it put my head in the clouds before even considering What does this already resemble? For me, seeing this video is like reading up on a lot of the adventures, ideas, and designs discussed here on BPL. Inspiring, neat, and makes you want to get out there and do it yourself. Space and Earth, the final frontiers.

I liked the video and how he could rattle off the equation for surface tension forces off the top of his head. And he presented the concepts well. I do a lot of science demos in schools but mine usually involve more fire and explosions than one should do in the ISS.

But there was a bit of hubris in saying future space colonists will be using his cup design. Dude, a used snack-sized Doritos bag could do the same thing if you cut open the side instead of the "top". And because it is metalized, you can use it as a hat to keep the government from scanning your brainwaves. -grin-

That's the weirdest thing I've ever seen. I never considered how difficult it would be to drink in space.