You don't have to be a rocket scientist to brew a good cup of coffee, but maybe it helps. A startup company certainly thinks so and is taking steps toward being the first coffee company in history to roast beans in what might be the ideal place: space. Space Roasters is a small firm with a big idea that has been percolating for some time: Send coffee beans approximately 100 miles (161 km) into space in a pressurized capsule. When the capsule comes plummeting back down, it will provide the ideal place for the beans to be roasted to perfection, as they float around gravity-free and thus not face the troubles associated with uneven roasting in spinning drums at ground level. Re-entry will provide all the heat they need. The founders have set their sights on 2020 as the date when they'll offer that first scoop of space-seared beans, first in Dubai and then elsewhere. The price for such extravagance, while not determined yet, will almost certainly be sky-high.
Raising a cup to coffee-brewing:
- Brazil is by far the biggest coffee-growing country, supplying about a third of the world's coffee beans.
- The most-expensive coffee, priced at about $600 USD per pound, is collected from the feces of the Asian palm civet, which eats but can't digest coffee beans.
- Coffee beans aren't actually beans; they're the seeds of the cherry-like berries that grow on coffee plants.
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More Info: The Guardian
Discussion Comments
The only time there is weightlessness is just before you obtain orbit, in orbit, and just before you hit the atmosphere before full reentry. Tf they plan to use only reentry heat, the beans will nor be floating free. Anyone who has been in space will tell you that reentry has the most felt gravity of the whole trip. They are pushed down in their seats and can barely move. They're not floating around the cabin! The heat from the unobstructed sun might do the job while in orbit. The 400+ degrees might fully cook the beans which, I assume, is not favorable (or "flavorable").
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