Coke zero-g / Coke Float | Space Art @ Imperial Earth

Coke zero-g (Get it?)

formerly: Coke Float
(Not many paintings can claim two title puns on the client's product.)

The Flight of STS-51F

A carbonated beverage poses a special case when the pressure is released in micro-gravity. In the absence of a gravity field the bubbles "weigh" the same as the liquid and, as a result, have nowhere to go. They do not break at the surface and create the effervescence that we expect. There is no "up" so the bubbles happily stay put and eventually make a really strange liquid that can best be described as "thin". This created an interesting problem for the flight surgeons and engineers to supply a wider range of liquids to the crew. The result is a miniature soda fountain that mixes the carbon dioxide, water and cola syrup in the proper proportions right in the mouthpiece when the trigger is pressed. It is not unlike a blast from a whipped cream can.

Now, if we could just get a refrigerator...