Octave de Gaulle, the ENSCI graduate designer interested in space objects and interiors has wrapped a glass bottle in an aeronautical-grade aluminium shell for French champagne house Maison Mumm, to grant champagne to be consumed in space.
Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar champagne was created by Maison Mumm for Axiom Space's flights to be "the first champagne bottle and tasting experience designed for space travel and human spaceflight".
In addition to being contained in a bottle designed by De Gaulle, who founded an agency specialising in space designs called SPADE, it will also be supported by CNES and Comat.
The "high-tech" bottle is designed to counter space-specific issues, including how champagne acts in the non-existence of gravity, while still clinging to the regulations of Champagne AOC – the drink's regulatory commission.
However, the regulations state that champagne has to be stored and conveyed in glass and corked with a customary "mushroom" cork.
In response to the regulations, the Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar is bottled-up in a 375-millilitre glass bottle coupled with a stainless-steel opening and closing device. It is encapsulated inside a shell made from aeronautical-grade aluminium, designed to shield the bottle.
De Gaulle said, "The safety being paramount in human-crewed space flights, the design has to integrate redundancies to comply with the applicable rules."
He added, "Those rules state that for a pressurized liquid container (such as a champagne bottle), a second protective layer is to be provided in the design in case of failure of the first one. This is typical of all space material."
"A failure of the glass bottle, even if not probable, could result in the glass shattering in the habitat, which is unacceptable."
The bottle's uppermost part is embodied by a long neck, topped with a ring that holds on the cork and locks the bottle's stainless-steel mechanism. This stops the cork from popping and empowers the bottle to be safely uncorked. Moreover, the shape will help carry out the champagne in space.
"The champagne leaves the bottle when the bottom button is pressed, exiting via the neck and settling into the ring that once held the cork in place," de Gaulle said.
"When a sufficient amount of champagne has exited, a small movement of the wrist separates a sphere of Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar champagne from the ring that is then gathered by our specially designed glass and ultimately tasted by the astronauts."
Although the bottle has a futuristic look, it aims to recreate the standard champagne tasting experience.
De Gaulle said, "The design and shape are similar to a traditional champagne bottle and reproduce the ritual of champagne tasting as faithfully as possible.”
"For example, while pouring is not possible anymore in zero-G conditions, the button used to serve (e.g. to force champagne out of the bottle) is located in the bottom of the bottle of Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar.”
"Thus, it reproduces a typical gesture of champagne service: with the thumb at the bottom of the bottle."
CNES has approved the Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar for use aboard Axiom's upcoming missions to the Axiom Station, designed by Philippe Starck and currently under construction.
Michael Suffredini, the President and CEO of Axiom Space, said, "Axiom's collaboration with Mumm and the Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar recognizes that to bring humanity to space, we can't just bring humans. We need to bring human traditions."
"This philosophy of celebrating humankind empowers our goal for Axiom Station, a next-generation destination that will serve as a thriving home in space to enable a diverse space economy, further exploration and enable more of humanity to access space."
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