Researchers at universities in Scotland and Japan, two whisky-loving countries, will launch a small CubeSat containing 10 ml of liquid and part of an oak barrel into orbit in 2028. An artificial tongue will then analyze the changes, the University of Glasgow writes.
The researchers believe the wood will “breathe” faster when exposed to space’s extremely high and low temperatures, meaning the whisky may age faster than it would on Earth.
The experiment will last five years and will also show how ethanol, a building block in the manufacture of many medicines, can be extracted in orbit. In low gravity, it is possible to produce molecules that are “difficult or impossible” to produce on Earth.
