Speedy drones are helping Ghana test for the novel coronavirus
The testing samples float down to the ground below. (Zipline/)Follow all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage here.When one of these 6-foot-long drones takes off from a facility in Ghana, a rope catapults the little airplane off a ramp and into the sky. With that dynamic launch and its two 14-inch propellers spinning, it very quickly hits a speed of nearly 70 miles per hour.It whirs along during cruise slightly slower, at some 60 mph, and when it gets to its drop zone, doors on its belly open up like a bomb bay, and it deploys a small box attached to a little parachute. Then it flies back home.And just recently those boxes have contained something novel: saliva samples to test for the presence of the coronavirus. The specimens arrived via these drones at one of two labs in cities in Ghana (one in Accra, the other in Kumasi) for testing. A...