Paper planes launched from space

Japanese scientists and origami masters propose to launch a flotilla of paper planes from space. The launch is tentatively slated for early 2009 from the International Space Station. Around 30 planes will make the descent, each gliding downward over what is expected to be the course of several months. If one of the planes survives to Earth, it will have made the longest flight ever by a paper plane, traversing some 400 km. In a test in Japan in February 2008, a prototype about 2.8 inches long and 2 inches wide survived Mach 7 speeds and temperatures reported to be 400 degrees Fahrenheit in a hypersonic wind tunnel for 10 seconds. Materials designed for use in conventional reentry vehicles, including ceramic composites, withstand temperatures on the order of 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Scientists have no way to track the airplanes or to predict where they might land; and as 70% of the Earth's surface is covered in water, the craft can anticipate a wet reunion with the planet. Each plane, however, will bear a request in several languages asking its finder to contact the Japanese team. Should one of the airplanes thus make its way home, its journey will have helped to demonstrate the feasibility of slow-speed, low-friction atmospheric reentry. Critics have suggested that even a successful demonstration will lack probative impact beyond the realm of diminutive sheets of folded paper, that they can only fall. Supporters counter that the broadening of knowledge is justification enough.

External links

• The Ultimate Paper Airplane
• Origami Plane To Be Launched From Space
• Scientists Aim For Origami Space Flight
• Can Japan's Paper Plane Fly In Space?
• Japan To Launch Origami Planes Into Outer Space
• Paper Aeroplane To Be Dropped 240 miles From International Space Station To Earth
• Reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education