The coffee mission is one of two projects selected from 45 proposals received in response to a solicitation issued by NASA in 2000. The solicitation requires that principal investigators manage the missions. Each mission's lead investigator is responsible for choosing the UAV best suited for the experiment, and then managing all aspects of the mission for NASA. The agency has slated about $8 million to fund two UAV missions during four years.

The coffee mission is part of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, a long-term research effort aimed at understanding how human-induced and natural changes affect our global environment, while providing practical societal benefits to America today. The Earth Science Enterprise provides the sound science needed by policy and economic decision makers to assure responsible stewardship of the global environment.

How the mission will be accomplished: AeroVironment will fly the Pathfinder-Plus on this mission, which was designed to demonstrate the potential commercial applications of UAVs. The solar-powered airplane will fly back and forth across the plantation in precision patterns while special cameras capture and transmit images of the ripening coffee to field managers on the ground. The aircraft’s camera/imaging equipment takes overlapping swaths of imagery, which will help harvesters locate the ripest coffee fields.

Imaging payloads are housed in environmental pods developed by NASA Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley for previous missions of the prototype Pathfinder UAV. Images will be downlinked in near-real time for viewing. Two commercial, off-the-shelf, high-resolution digital camera systems were purchased and interfaced for airborne operation.

With the assistance of New Mexico State University, an application for a Certificate of Authorization (COA) to fly the Pathfinder Plus in national airspace (NAS) was prepared and submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Western Regional Office. Honolulu air traffic controllers will monitor the mission in NAS. An agreement among Clark University, the FAA Honolulu Control Facility and the Pacific Missile Range Facility establishes responsibilities and defines procedures for the aircraft’s operation in NAS.

Purpose of the Program: The project is designed to build confidence in the operation of UAVs in national airspace. Pathfinder Plus will be equipped with a transponder and assigned a specific flight altitude. The flights will involve close coordination with the FAA. The project objective is to further develop UAVs as imaging platforms for Earth resource monitoring, and to transition this aeronautical capability to the commercial market.

The UAV Coffee Project will test new practices in remote aerial imaging and analysis, wireless Ethernet ‘bridge’ communications technology and commercial capabilities of UAV technologies. Data from the cameras attached to the UAV will be continuously downloaded to computers that coffee growers can monitor and will indicate which parts of the plantation are ready for harvesting.

More details about the UAV Coffee Project are on the World Wide Web at: http://www.clarku.edu/faculty/herwitz/