This week the SOTW is going back to my Industrial Design heritage.  But of course since I’m doing this for fun I wanted to throw in a sci-fi twist.  This week I dreamed up a coffee maker for use in space, specifically in zero gravity.  Call it an exercise in the absurd to get the creative juices flowing.

This was just a quick exercise for the blog, so I didn’t get to put in as much research as I normally would for a real product design.  So here goes.  I knew that whatever happened the system had to be 100% leak proof.  So everything would be contained in bags (fig D).  These bags would be LDPE with a heat resistant coating.  This bag would be stored with water (room temp) then placed into the top of the coffee maker (fig G) along with the coffee packet (fig F).  The coffee packet would be similar to what you get at those cheap hotels for your in-room coffee maker.

There would be a second bag in the actual mug.  This bag would be completely empty and compressed.  When the coffee maker is activated, the water is heated and the water bag is compressed forcing it through the grounds, then into the mug.  No gravity needed and no liquid is released.

The mouth of the mug would be similar to existing baby sippy cups with the rubber mouth, which needs to be sucked on to release liquid.  Another note is that the original water bag would be reused in the mug for the next brew.

Figure B gives you an idea of the materials.  The mug would be made of some sort of brushed steel so that the mug can have a vacuum like a thermos and the main coffee maker would be made mostly of an ABS plastic.

Well that does it for now.  Feel free to leave comments/ideas for the design.  And remember in space no one can hear you percolate.  Yeah I said it.