The Matrix Data Bank

Oh my…  I was reading Irregular WebComics today, and noticed this annotation…  All I can say is…  The thought of carbonated Soda in space has me nervous now…

I was thinking about this, and realised there would be immense problems with carbonated drinks in space.
Without gravity, the bubbles wouldn\’t rise to a surface and dissipate into the atmosphere. As more and more bubbles are formed by nucleation of the dissolved carbon dioxide, the entire drink would become \”foamier\” and try to expand in all directions. As long as the drink is sealed in a can, you\’re okay, but as soon as you pop it to have a drink, the liquid is going to foam up and begin expanding uncontrollably.
It turns out that Coca Cola has actually been taken into space, on Shuttle mission STS-15-F in 1985. Both the Coca Cola and Pepsi companies designed special cans for use in zero gravity. The crew deemed the experiment a complete failure, because of the interactions of the carbonation with the lack of gravity – as I\’d speculated on already.
A further complication, even if you can solve the storage and drinking problems, is that large quantities of gas would be released in the stomach of the drinker. On Earth, we all know what that means: burping. In free-fall, however, the contents of your stomach aren\’t layered by gravity into liquid with gas rising to the top, where it can be ejected through the oesophagus. This has caused problems for astronauts on many occasions (see last paragraph), even without adding carbonated drinks into the equation. Start drinking fizzy drinks, and you\’re going to have the mother of all stomach bloating.

via Irregular Webcomic! #2034-2038.