在國際空間站享用一杯意式濃縮咖啡

ROME — Samantha Cristoforetti had an espresso on Sunday that was out of this world, and she did it in the name of science.

羅馬——週日，薩曼莎·克里斯托弗雷蒂(Samantha Cristoforetti)享用了一杯世間難尋的意式濃縮咖啡，而且是以科學的名義。

Ms. Cristoforetti is an astronaut, the seventh Italian and the first Italian woman to venture into orbit. She has been at the International Space Station since November, and over the weekend got to do something quintessentially Italian: She became the first person to drink an authentic serving of what she called “the finest organic suspension ever devised” in space.

克里斯托弗雷蒂是一名宇航員，她是進入過太空的第七名意大利航天員，也是首位意大利女性。從去年11月以來，她一直待在國際空間站(International Space Station)裏。上週末，她做成了一件非常具有意大利特色的事情：她成了第一個在太空品嚐到純正意式濃縮咖啡(espresso)的人。她把這杯咖啡稱作太空中“有史以來最細膩的有機懸浮液”。

“Fresh espresso in the new Zero-G cup! To boldly brew ... ” she posted on social media, where she has been chronicling her stay on the station with photos and explanatory videos.

“新的零重力杯裏的新鮮意式濃縮！大膽地煮……”她在社交媒體上說。她一直在上面用照片和視頻記錄自己在空間站的生活。

However much she may have enjoyed her first espresso in more than five months, making the drink in orbit was no lark, but “a very serious study in fluid physics,” Roberto Battiston, president of ASI, the Italian space agency, wrote in an emailed statement. “Until Sunday, we didn’t know exactly how hot fluids under high pressure reacted” in the near-weightless environment of the space station, he said. “Now we do.”

無論她多麼享受這五個多月以來的第一杯意式濃縮，在太空中製作這杯飲料可不是爲了好玩，而是“一項非常嚴肅的流體物理學研究，”意大利航天局(ASI)局長羅伯託·巴蒂斯頓(Roberto Battiston)在一份郵件聲明中說。“在上週日之前，我們都不能確切地知道，熱流體在高壓下會出現何種反應，”他說。“現在我們得到了答案。”

A special espresso maker, named ISSpresso, was designed for the task by Argotec, an engineering and software firm based in Turin, and the Italian coffee producer Lavazza, with help from the space agency. It was included among the experiments and technical demonstrations that Ms. Cristoforetti, a captain in the Italian Air Force, was scheduled to carry out on her mission to the station, which ends in mid-May.

這臺特製的意式濃縮咖啡機叫做ISSpresso，在ASI的幫助下，由位於都靈的設計和軟件公司亞果科技(Argotec)和意大利咖啡生產商Lavazza製作。它是克里斯托弗雷蒂計劃在空間站完成的實驗和技術演示中的一項。克里斯托弗雷蒂是意大利空軍的一名飛行員，她的這次任務將於5月中旬結束。

“Coffee represents one of the distinctive elements of Italian culture,” said a spokeswoman for the agency, who requested anonymity under her agency’s rules for employees.

“咖啡是意大利文化中的獨特元素之一，”航天局的一名發言人說。由於該局對僱員的相關規定，她要求匿名。

Making a proper espresso — a singular alchemy of high temperature, water pressure and perfectly tamped coffee — is difficult enough to master on earth. Microgravity conditions made the task still more complicated, and Argotec took two years to work out how to do it.

製作一杯像樣的意式濃縮咖啡——這個流程需要高溫、水壓，還要把咖啡粉完美地壓實——在地球上就已經很難了。微重力條件讓這個任務更加複雜，亞果科技花了兩年時間才解決這個問題。

“We developed our hardware on the basis of the parameters for making good coffee, while considering safety requirements,” said Valerio Di Tana, an engineer at the company.

“我們根據製作好咖啡的標準開發了我們的硬件設備，同時還考慮了安全方面的要求，”公司的工程師瓦萊里奧 ·迪塔納(Valerio Di Tana)說。

The squat, 44-pound machine wound up looking something like an old-fashioned laboratory incubator, built from military-standard components. “You don’t see those on terrestrial machines,” Mr. Di Tana said.

這臺低矮的機器重44磅（約合20千克），採用軍工標準的零件打造而成，看上去就像是一臺舊式的實驗室孵化器。“你在地球上的機器裏看不到這些零件，”迪塔納說。

The dripless system is even designed to emit a small waft of coffee odor when the straw is inserted into the pouch containing the brew. Two small flaps on the side allow an astronaut to hold it without burning a hand.

通過不滴水系統的特殊設計，當把吸管插入盛有咖啡的小袋時，還可以釋放出少量的咖啡香氣。側面設計了兩個小活板，宇航員拿着的時候不會燙手。

The ISSpresso machine makes other hot drinks as well, including tea and consommé. “This is important from the nutritional aspect, but also gives the astronauts a psychological boost,” David Avino, the managing director of Argotec, said in a telephone interview on Monday.

這臺ISSpresso還能製作其他熱飲，包括茶和清燉肉湯。“它不僅能在提供營養方面能夠發揮作用，還能讓宇航員在心理上更加振奮，”亞果科技的執行董事戴維·阿維諾(David Avino)週一接受電話採訪時說。

The company had already begun the project when another Italian astronaut, Luca Parmitano, remarked in a June 2013 interview from the space station that the one thing he really missed in space “was a good cup of espresso.”

在這家公司啓動這個項目之後不久，2013年6月，另一名意大利宇航員盧卡·帕米塔諾(Luca Parmitano)在空間站接受採訪時曾說，他在太空中唯一十分想念的東西，“就是一杯香醇的意式濃縮咖啡”。