The international space station (ISS) has received five types of distilled spirits sent by a Japanese company known for its whiskey and other alcoholic beverages. The alcoholic beverages were sent in Japan's 10,000 pound cargo shipment that arrived Monday at the ISS.

Six astronauts are not supposed to take even a sip of the alcoholic beverages sent up there, as these are parts of experiments meant to help find out pace of aging process in space.

Suntory, the Japanese spirits conglomerate that owns such familiar whiskey brands as Jim Beam and Maker's Mark, is supporting the stint.

"Alcoholic beverages are widely known to develop a mellow flavor when aged for a long time. Suntory's research suggests the probability that mellowness develops by promoted formation of the high-dimensional molecular structure in the alcoholic beverage in environments where liquid convection is suppressed", the company said in a news release.

The space station has the microgravity environment, making it the perfect lab to test their hypothesis. The experiments mark the beginning from today onwards, including storage of two identical sets of samples, each containing five types of distilled spirits with 40% ethanol, until next year.

One of the samples will be stored in Japan and the other in a convection-free state inside a Japanese research laboratory aboard the station.

Whiskey expert Tom Fischer is of the belief that the experiments will certainly have some scientific implications. The sample at the ISS will be sent back to earth after spending at least a year in orbit.