NASA Aircraft to Help Seek Heavenly Coffê

NASA Aircraft to Help Seek Heavenly Coffê

NASA Aircraft to Help Seek Heavenly Coffee


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the search for a heavenly cup of coffee, NASA will send an unmanned solar-powered aircraft soaring above a Hawaiian plantation so growers know exactly when to pick the beans for the most flavorful brew.

The craft will take color images of the crops and give precise information, down to the day, on when to harvest, which could be a key to producing excellent coffee, NASA said in a statement on Tuesday.

The project is part of a science demonstration program to show that unpiloted aircraft can carry scientific payloads for long missions at altitudes that would stymie a human pilot in a tra***ional plane.

The research team will use the Pathfinder-Plus aircraft, a high-altitude solar-powered craft that is basically one huge wing with eight propellers, to loiter for long periods over crop fields during the harvest season.

After flights over the largest coffee plantation in America, the Kauai Coffee Company plantation, the research team led by Clark University of Worcester, Massachusetts, will brief coffee industry officials on its findings.

Images of the Pathfinder-Plus, built by AeroVironment Inc. of Monrovia, California, can be seen online through links from http://www.aerovironment.com.