{"id":645152,"date":"2026-10-05T05:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T05:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/645152\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T05:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T05:46:09","slug":"whisky-to-be-aged-in-space-for-first-time-in-university-satellite-project-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/645152\/","title":{"rendered":"Whisky to be aged in space for first time in university satellite project \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whisky will be distilled in space for the first time as part of an experiment which will also measure how the spirit ages in the harsh environment beyond the Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Engineers in Scotland and Japan are planning to put Scotch on a rocket in 2028, sending a satellite containing samples of whisky and its base ingredients on a five-year mission to orbit the Earth.<\/p>\n

It is hoped the frequent changes between extreme heat and freezing cold experienced by the whisky as it rotates the planet every 90 minutes could speed up the maturation process.<\/p>\n

This could potentially open the door to future production of space-aged whisky, which the scientist behind the project expects to have \u201cvery bold\u201d flavours as a result of its unusual journey.<\/p>\n

\"William<\/a>\"Andrew<\/a>\"TheThe \u2018Space Puffin\u2019 cubesat will be deployed from the International Space Station\u2019s Japanese module (University of Glasgow) <\/p>\n

While such whisky would command astronomical prices due to the cost of launching and recovering the liquid, collectors are already known to pay hundreds of thousands for some of the rarest bottles.<\/p>\n

Dr Gilles Bailet, of the University of Glasgow, said a number of students have travelled from Scotland to Japan to help to co-design the \u201ccubesat\u201d which will contain the tiny whisky samples and ingredients.<\/p>\n

The research is also expected to provide insight into how orbital factories could work, which could develop molecules for medications which are difficult to produce on Earth.<\/p>\n

Dr Bailet told Press Association: \u201cWe want to see what the effect of a space environment is on the aging of the whisky.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe\u2019ve got the best people here in Scotland to be able to inform that, with centuries of experience, so we can bring this whisky experience into space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current plan for the whisky experiment \u2013 nicknamed \u201cSpace Puffin\u201d \u2013 is to launch the cubesat in 2028 on a SpaceX supply mission to the International Space Station, before deploying it into orbit from the Japanese module of the space station.<\/p>\n

The science around the process of whisky \u201cbreathing\u201d as it ages in wooden casks is not well understood, Dr Bailet said, but the cycles could happen much faster in space \u2013 where temperatures can quickly vary between minus 150 degrees to 200 degrees.<\/p>\n

Dr Bailet continued: \u201cWe build our spacecraft to be able to get an environment which is better for the whisky, but this wood will breathe faster than on Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so we are hoping that we\u2019ll be able to accelerate the ageing to be able to get something more interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The whisky on the cubesat will be monitored while it is in space, feeding data on its colour and chemical composition back to scientists on the ground.<\/p>\n

On Earth, whisky is produced by mixing barley with water and yeast.<\/p>\n

Yeast breaks down the sugars in the barley, creating ethanol as a byproduct.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s system will demonstrate how ethanol,\u00a0which plays a role in the production of many drugs,\u00a0can be extracted in orbit.<\/p>\n

While the cubesat will not be recovered at the end of its five-year mission, Dr Bailet said he is keen to scale up whisky maturation in space and develop a system for launching Scotch into space and landing it on Earth after maturation.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe are really keen to be able to actually fly a full whisky-making system, with a full cask, if we\u2019re able to collaborate with investors or other people interested about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s totally in the realm of possible to bring back something like a litre of whisky within the next three to five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hopes this process would produce \u201creally bold whiskies\u201d with \u201cextremely complex flavour profiles\u201d.<\/p>\n

While whisky has previously been into space as part of an experiment to understand flavour, it did not leave the temperature-controlled confines of the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

The cubesat will not have a full whisky cask on board. However the liquid samples will be contained by small wood chips to mimic the cask aging process on Earth.<\/p>\n

Different distilleries in Scotland and Japan are expected to contribute the whisky, though these have not been chosen yet.<\/p>\n

Dr Bailet said: \u201cPrevious research has suggested that the microgravity of space may allow us to grow larger, purer chemical crystals and to fold proteins in new ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig questions still remain over how we might actually do chemistry in space, however, and this project aims to provide some answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhisky gives us a very recognisable, very well-understood model for studying and monitoring biological and chemical processes in microgravity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The initial visit to Japan is the result of a grant from distillery-design consultancy Allen Associates.<\/p>\n

Geoff Nisbet, lead process design engineer at the consultancy, said: \u201cWe often say that our fingerprints are found all over Scotland\u2019s distilleries \u2014 we never expected the next set might end up in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re delighted to support a project which brings together Scotland\u2019s world-renowned whisky industry, engineering innovation and the next generation of engineers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is also something quite fitting about Scotland and Japan being brought together through whisky once again, this time with a project looking far beyond the distillery itself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whisky will be distilled in space for the first time as part of an experiment which will also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,34939,82,150232,9036,247,1577,70648],"class_list":["post-645152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-pa-exclusive","tag-science","tag-scotch-whisky","tag-scotland","tag-space","tag-uk","tag-whisky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}