Costa Rican engineers find solution to brewing coffee in space

Dec 8, 2008 - Two Costa Rican engineering students have a developed a coffee brewing device that  can be used in space. So what's the problem you ask? Well apperantly since space in confined to a vacuum -(and thus, lacks atmospheric pressure)  any heat applied to water causes it to evaporate immediately. Thus making it impossible to brew a cup of coffee under normal conditions. Now for some physics: in order for water to boil the amount of heat applied needs to exceed that of its atmospheric pressure. Under most circumstances water has 1 atm or 14.7  psi "pressing" up against it , in locations with higher altitude - such as Denver, CO - water boils much more quickly due to reduced pressure. Check out the coffee brewing video which better explains the newly developed process.