The year is 2025, in Melbourne, Coffee Capital of the World. The Space Agency managing Australia’s new international space station assembles a panel of scientists and coffee to design a coffee-making process for space-travelling coffee connoisseurs.

Coffee-making in space, however, is a challenging proposition. How do you grind the coffee without coffee grounds flying everywhere? How does an astronaut drink a floating ball of hot coffee? What to do with dead coffee grounds? Is space-made coffee even drinkable?

The Discovery Centre leads a ‘Hypothetical’, challenging the experts in an open forum to resolve the issues. Members of the public observe the role-play to learn about the art and science of roasting, grinding and extracting coffee in the extremes of space. The audience is then invited to join the discussion. This event is preceded by a public lecture in which scientists de-mystify the science behind coffee. After the event, members of the public are invited to taste and rate the different styles of coffee discussed and discover with the benefit of microscopes how the different shapes and sizes of coffee grinds affect taste.