This company wants to use reentry heating to roast coffee beans

Enlarge / Could Rocket Lab help make perfectly roasted coffee beans? (credit: Rocket Lab)

A company called Space Roasters says it plans to use the considerable heat of reentry from space through Earth's atmosphere to roast coffee beans. It will then sell them for the perfect cup of joe.

In an interview with Room magazine, the founders of the company, Hatem Alkhafaji and Anders Cavallini, say space is the place to look for a next-level brew. "Coffee has been roasted the same way for centuries now, and as space science has improved many technologies, we believe it is time to revolutionize coffee roasting using space technology," the pair told the magazine.

How does it work? The company says it has patented a "space roasting capsule" in which heat from re-entry will be distributed around four cylinders each containing 75kg of coffee beans. Floating in microgravity, the beans will be evenly heated and roasted during the process. The capsule will then be recovered after landing with parachutes. "The entire process will last only 20 minutes but will end with a marvelous aroma as the hatch is opened," the founders told the magazine.

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