Update: After staring at this flow diagram for quite some time, I realize it's actually the most robust, "complete-seeming" finite state machine I have seen used in the real world.
Why this ISSpresso machine was developed and sent into orbit at all? What scientific outcome does it have? Why was it necessary spending taxpayer's money developing it?
"Since that time, I’ve learned that small heaters (like coffee makers or kettles) can be kryptonite to an inverter, and that this is common folk knowledge among solar installers."
Is there any more on this? It can understand inductive loads maybe challenging inverters but resistive loads should be easy? Is it an issue of cheap inverter design, or something more fundamental?
Bitter Lessons from the ISSpresso
(mceglowski.substack.com)110 points by zdw 6 May 2026 | 31 comments
Comments
[1] https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AOMG!,f_auto,q_auto:...
Update: After staring at this flow diagram for quite some time, I realize it's actually the most robust, "complete-seeming" finite state machine I have seen used in the real world.
> You and I will probably die before we’re allowed to take a bottle of water through airport security again
We could again bring water through airport security for some time in e.g. Rome's FCO (2 years maybe? It's been a while)
"Since that time, I’ve learned that small heaters (like coffee makers or kettles) can be kryptonite to an inverter, and that this is common folk knowledge among solar installers."
Is there any more on this? It can understand inductive loads maybe challenging inverters but resistive loads should be easy? Is it an issue of cheap inverter design, or something more fundamental?