http://cellar.org/pictures/solaraircraft.jpg

This is a NASA craft, and apparently its role is to fly over Hawaii, taking pictures of the coffee crop to determine exactly when it is ripe for picking. They say it will greatly improve the coffee.

I guess. Best coffee I've ever had is from New Guinea, where they don't fly over the beans, even with a pedal-operated glider, and they can't even afford to take a Polaroid of the guy who picks the beans, or have a logo with a donkey or anything. I'd get better coffee from NASA if they installed a reminder device on my fridge door to tell me when I'm outta cream, and it would be a lot more cost-effective.

I mean, it seems like every pound of coffee has been carefully mined for every last bit of possible profit, and we don't really need NASA vehicles helping in the cause. Especially since we're provoking a Colombian civil war by telling them they can't make money growing coca plants and should try to make more money on legit agriculture.

It appears that NASA is vainly trying to find a purpose to their existence since the "Could We Be Smashed By An Asteroid" craze of the late 90's has died out and the fact that 16 schmucks on an island are getting better ratings than the exploration of what truly is the modern-day frontier.

Personally, I want to keep them around, no matter what they have to do to get funding. It may be the packrat in me, but NASA seems to be one of those things you want to have handy because you'll never know when you'll need it.

That's right. NASA is America's duct tape.

~Mike

If they'd get off their high horse, it'd be easy to get them funding.

Think "Millionaire survivor". The participants PAY at least $20 million to enter (probably much more), and win nothing but prestige. Best of all, the losers get to test the Soyuz escape modules.

Re: solar aircraft
 

I believe you have it backwards especially after my multihour conversation with a NASA engineer in an electronics store. It is almost a miracle that NASA could develop this plane since the overwhelming philosophy is "if it does not go onto the Space Station, then it has no purpose". This plane is an example of how so many great concepts were developed. They built and tested a research idea - solar powered flight. The fact that it is monitoring coffee simply gives a basic research project an added benefit.

This is not an example of NASA gone bad. That silly space station - that was only suppose to cost $8billion and is now in excess of $80billion - with no scientific purpose - that ISS is an example of NASA gone bad. This solar powered plane is a classic example of what NASA did so often to make America a world leader in aviation.

While NASA does do alot of pointless/stupid stuff (ISS??)
they do have some good ideas. This plane, is primarily to test solar flight, i'ts a cool idea, closeest we'll proably get to perpetual motion. And it does not cost that much. NASA is a needed organisation but yes, alot of money could be better spent, until there are widespread commerical uses for space, mining and the like there isin't the need for the researh. But on the other hand, your not gonna get thsoe without the research. Catch 22. Space is not a nice place to be for your average human being and while some cool diea s have come out, moon bases and the like, tiny little problems like asteroids smashing them o bits every 10 minutes casue a few problems, were beter off developing more untra-high tech stuff back on good 'ol earth than billions wasted so america can try to prove its domainance by having the only space base. Work on quantum, get those aprticle accelleraters fired up, antmatter, the stuff of science fiction that brinking on real life, thats the stuff that will make the rest, and the true potential of space possible.

why does this remind me of the solar powered flashlight?