Lets learn the scientific concept of boiling point, and what it would mean to enjoy warm tea or coffee on the Moon or Mars
Coffee – Why won’t it taste good on Mars/Moon?
Love to learn
All of us are accustomed to drinking hot coffee / Tea or Milk on Earth, and there is a rush to find another home apart from the Earth.
In this article, I am going to talk about the scientific concept of boiling point, and what it would mean to enjoy warm tea or coffee on the Moon or Mars.
To start with – the boiling point is defined as the temperature at which the vapor pressure of a liquid becomes equal to the atmospheric pressure. So you ask, what is the vapor pressure — it is the pressure exerted by a vapor in equilibrium with its condensed phases at a given temperature in a closed system. In simple words, it’s the pressure exerted by vapor on the top of the water with water vapor and liquid water in constant equilibrium.
Now, at 100-degree Celsius vapor pressure of water becomes equal to atmospheric pressure, hence the water boils. The pressure exerted by the atmosphere on earth is considered one-atmosphere pressure. So, the boiling point of water is 100 degrees Celsius at one-atmospheric pressure.
Imagine if I increase the atmospheric pressure to 2 instead of one, the water would boil at 200 degrees Celsius.
This is exactly what happens in a pressure cooker. With a closed cooker, the atmospheric pressure inside the cooker is more than one atmosphere which means water would boil at a much higher temperature than 100 degrees Celsius, and any food in contact with water at such a higher temperature would cook immediately.
Now, the opposite would work on the Moon or Mars. Moon’s atmospheric pressure is very less in comparison to earth. Practically, the Moon is considered to be surrounded by a vacuum. This means that the vapor pressure of water on the Moon would become equal to atmospheric pressure at a much lower temp than 100 degrees, like at 10 degrees, so there is no way to enjoy a hot cup of tea :).
Similarly, the atmospheric pressure of Mars is only 0.006 times as that of earth, or earth’s atmospheric pressure is 166 times as that of Mars, so water would boil at 0.6 degrees Celsius (nearly freezing point of water), so there is no way to enjoy hot coffee on Mars, on the contrary cold coffee is very easy to make :).