Many people cannot imagine life without coffee, and for most Italians, coffee means espresso, a thick brew prepared in a special coffee machine.So, when Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti headed for the International Space Station earlier this month,her compatriots worried how she would survive there for six months, drinking only instant coffee."I believe that when working as an astronaut, a job in which you have to reason a lot, reflect, and be attentive, espresso is definitely very important," said one Italian.To help Cristoforetti and other espresso lovers in orbit, the famed Turin-based coffee maker Lavazza and engineering firm Argotec,which specializes in making space food, joined forces to produce a coffee machine that would work at zero gravity."We had to figure out how to make coffee on the station exactly like we make it on earth.The other difficulty was complying with safety measures in order to qualify the machine as 'On-Board software' on the International Space Station," said Alberto Cabilli, R&D manager for Lavazza.The machine, called ISSpresso, overcomes the absence of gravity by firing pressurized water through capsules of coffee.Cristoforetti took it with her for testing when she blasted off into orbit on November 23."The concept of this machine was for an experiment, so we started as a technology demonstration experiment,
很多人不能想象没有咖啡的生活，对大多数意大利人来说，咖啡就是浓缩咖啡，一种用特制咖啡机做成的浓咖啡。所以当意大利宇航员克里斯托弗雷蒂本月早些时候前往国际太空站时，她的同胞们很担心她如何能在那里生活6个月，而只能喝速溶咖啡。“我认为作为宇航员是要经常推理、反思、非常专注，所以浓缩咖啡对他们来说很重要。”为了帮助克里斯托弗雷蒂和其他将去太空站的浓缩咖啡爱好者，总部设在都灵的著名咖啡制造商拉瓦扎和专于制造太空食品的工程公司Argotec联手研制了能在零重力下使用的咖啡机。“我们要弄明白如何像在地球上那样在太空站制作咖啡，另一个困难是要遵守安全准则，以便让机器能够在国际太空站具备‘机载软件’的品质。”这台机器名叫ISSpresso，能克服失重状态，将高压水射入装咖啡的小盒，11月23日克里斯托弗雷蒂在被发射进入轨道时就带着这台机器进行测试。“这台机器的理念是一种实验，就像我们做的技术展示实验那样，
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