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Handy Zero-G Cup

Take a look at this video, in which astronaut Dr. Don Pettit demonstrates the perfect cup for space on the International Space Station.


(The perfect cup for micro-gravity)

SF writers were on this need early. In his 1953 novel Space Tug, Murray Leinster describes a zero-g cup:

He regarded his cup with interest. It stayed in its saucer because of magnets in both plastic articles. The saucer stayed on the table because the table was magnetic, too. And the coffee did not float out to mid-air in a hot, round brownish ball, because there was a transparent cover over the cup. When one put his lips to the proper edge, a part of the cover yielded as the cup was squeezed. The far side of the cup was flexible. One pressed, and the coffee came into one's lips without the spilling of a drop.

Fans of Larry Niven are probably thinking about drinking bulbs, the only way to enjoy droobleberry juice, from his 1966 story The Warriors.

From Physics Central.

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