 The International Space Station recently got a delivery of ice cream from the Dragon spacecraft, but unlike me, they don't get to eat ice cream all the time. So why do astronauts only get ice cream as a treat, and why is there no cold beer in space? We'll find out in your space pod for today, May 6, 2015. The main reason why ice cream and beer are not regular items on the Space Station menu is simple. It's a matter of space. There are currently four ways to keep things cold on station. The first being the Melphi, or minus 80 degree laboratory freezer for ISS, which can range from minus 80 degrees centigrade to plus four degrees. There is also the Merlin, or microgravity experiment research locker and incubator, which is capable of minus 20 degrees centigrade to plus 48 degrees. Perfect for keeping beer and ice cream cold and reheating yesterday's lunch. There is also the Glacier, or general laboratory active cryogenic ISS experiment refrigerator, and Polar, but there's no cool acronym for that one, sorry, and these two fridges are capable of minus 95 degrees Celsius to plus four degrees. And they can also be installed on visiting Dragon and Cygnus spacecraft to transport cold samples and the occasional ice cream to and from Earth. So we have fridges and we have freezers on the International Space Station, but where is all the cold beer? Well, it turns out that cold storage is really important for preserving experiment samples by basically halting any microbial growth that could make a sample go bad and slowing down any chemical reactions from happening. So all the freezer space on station is really precious and important for making sure we do good science, and thus it is taken up by samples and chemicals instead of fresh fruit, vegetables, beer and ice cream. Originally, when the station was smaller and only had a crew of three, there was only one kitchen and no cold storage for food items, but now that the station is fully built, there are two kitchens to maintain the six-membered crew. They also have two Merlin fridges, which they can use to store food samples, but once a fridge has been used to store medical samples, it can be no longer used for food. So in the end, it all comes down to priority, but even if there was space on the station to have beer, that doesn't mean the astronauts will actually want to drink it. Carbonated beverages such as beer and soda aren't very pleasant to drink in space. You see, gases and liquids don't behave the same way in space as they do here on Earth. Specifically, they don't separate the same way. Here on Earth, when you open your can of beer or soda, excess gas comes to the surface and escapes and the bubbles are formed. But in space, the bubbles are stuck inside the liquid. So when you take a sip of the soda, there are much more bubbles in your mouth than there would be on Earth, and this feeling can be unpleasant. Also, once all that excess gas that you've just drunk needs to come up by burping, the burp just doesn't release gas by itself. In space, burps are a combination of liquid and gas. Yep, gross. There is one final reason why there is no cold beer in space. It's not allowed. Well, for US astronauts anyway. While Russia has officially banned alcohol in space, they have broken this rule a couple of times. Firstly, when the French astronaut Jean-Luc Cretien visited the Mir space station, he was allowed to bring wine. In 1997, after the fire aboard the Mir space station, the crew destressed with some brandy. And previous to this, in 1980, when a Soyuz was trying to dock to the Salyut 6 space station, the automatic docking controls failed, and the crew had to take manual control, so they drank brandy after this as well. So there might be no cold beer in space, but perhaps there is wine. But I wouldn't expect the astronauts to tell you about it. Thank you for watching, and I hope you enjoyed this video. Feel free to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more space videos at youtube.com. We also have a Patreon campaign because we are a crowdfunded show, and you can find that at patreon.com slash spacepod. Thank you to all our patrons for all your contributions so far. Without you, we wouldn't be able to purchase tripods, microphones and ice cream. My name is Lisa Stojanowski, and I'll see you next week.