5/10: solar aircraft

[tw]

Originally posted by Chewbaccus
It appears that NASA is vainly trying to find a purpose to their existence ...

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.