Japan wants to fly paper plane from International Space Station to earth The paper plane is subjected to a high velocity air stream in a wind tunnel test in this photo provided by University of Tokyo Professor Shinji Suzuki. KASHIWA, Chiba -- An experiment to test whether a paper plane thrown from space could reach earth was successfully carried out at the University of Tokyo's Kashiwa campus on Thursday.
A special paper plane modeled on the Space Shuttle and designed to withstand high temperatures was found to be able to endure a mach 7 high-velocity air stream for 10 seconds. The test was jointly carried out by the University of Tokyo and the Japan folded paper plane association. Participants are aiming to launch a flight of the paper plane from the International Space Station in November this year. In the experiment, a wind tunnel on the campus was used to simulate conditions of the plane returning to earth from space, and tests were carried out on the plane's strength and its ability to withstand heat. The temperature of the body of the paper plane rose as high as 300 degrees Celsius, but it did not burn up or end up damaged. Shinji Suzuki, a professor in aerospace engineering at the university who took part in the experiment, said that in the plane's actual flight, it would be released from the International Space Station, 400 kilometers from the earth, at mach 20, but immediately after entering the earth's atmosphere at an altitude of about 80 kilometers, it would slow to about mach 7, matching the conditions of the experiment at the university. Researchers plan to calculate the plane's return trajectory based on experiment data such as the pressure exerted on the aircraft, and design a paper plane to be launched from the International Space Station. The plane will be 30 to 40 centimeters long and weigh about 30 grams, bigger than the 7-centimeter-long plane used in the experiment. "We're gaining confidence (from the successful test)," Suzuki said. "We want to have astronaut Koichi Wakata, who is due to start work on the International Space Station this year, take it with him. The technology from paper planes could be applied in the development of new transport craft." Mainichi Daily News - Japan http://mdn.mainichi.jp http://reddit.com/goto?rss=true&id=t3_665sq mediacare http://www.mediacare.biz [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
