This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.
This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?
Just post some stuff and don't spam.
The Capillary Cup is a zero-gravity cup designed by NASA astronaut Donald Pettit on the International Space Station. The product is an open drinking cup designed to be used in a microgravity environment, developed from Pettit’s desire to drink water without a bag and straw in outer space.
Why not use a sippy cup like a toddler uses? They have these ones with little plastic membranes on top, that when you apply a bit of pressure open up and release the liquid at that point.
https://i.imgur.com/5wioDjJ.jpeg
I'd imagine that it's because there's complications when being used in microgravity. The people are literal rocket scientists and astrophysicists. I think they've got a good grasp on problem solving.
The same people who asked if 100 tampons was enough for 14 days might not have the best grasp on all things.
Maybe they’ve never even seen one of these devices before and never considered it, who knows.
Because there's no upsidedown in space. A sippy cup works by using gravity, you have to turn the cup upsidedown to get the liquid to go to the sippy spout so you can suck it out. In outer space the liquid would just be floating free inside the sippy cup and not near the spout for you to suck it out.
Release the liquid without gravity? I'm pretty sure any bottle design would need to be collapsible - basically becoming a bag at that point - to work in zero g, but maybe I misunderstand how these cups are supposed to work.