Mach 7 Paper Airplane anyone?

NYC Irish · 01-22-2008, 08:15 AM

This is beyond cool..

A "Paper Airplane" to be launched from the ISS and hopefully survive its flight at speeds or Mach 7 + to Earth...

Personally I would have had Dhanners Design it...

A paper plane might not seem ideally suited to space travel, but a Japanese engineering professor is collaborating with origami masters to design a small paper spacecraft that could be launched from the International Space Station and survive a descent to Earth.
A prototype was successfully tested in a wind tunnel last week.

"This origami airplane might some day actually fly," says Jim Longuski, an expert in aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, in the US.

Origami spaceplane to launch from space station ::: Pink Tentacle

SCEtoAux · 01-22-2008, 08:25 AM

That would be neat.

Space Ship One did not need a lot of heat protection because Rutan's design did not descend fast enough to create a lot of friction. SS1 is a lot bigger than that origami plane would be.

**Lex** · 01-22-2008, 08:31 AM

We could fold a bigger paper place in space, that's sure >_<

dhanners · 01-22-2008, 08:53 AM

That would be mondo cool. Given that the Earth's surface is mostly water, though, I'm wondering about being able to find where it lands. And once it enters some of those currents in the upper atmosphere, something that light could stay aloft for days or weeks, no?

Then again, maybe the thing could be made out of some sort of super-duper radar-reflective paper so it could be easily tracked.

**Lex** · 01-22-2008, 09:00 AM

--A radio beacon on it would do nicely...

Paragon · 01-22-2008, 11:31 AM

It'd be nice to get the instructions to make a replica as well. Probably after it lands though, otherwise you'll have bunches of fakes on Ebay.

NYC Irish · 01-22-2008, 12:01 PM

HAs out hobby finally reached Hyper Sonic speeds?

In all fairness its a gonner as far as finding afterwards...however as a kid I did launch a few helium balloons with my name an address in them, 2 replies from what I remember, One from Normandy and another from Rouen, outside paris...

Not too bad eh?

John John

zathros · 01-22-2008, 12:08 PM

If they can get the folds right maybe it will "fold" space

Regie · 01-22-2008, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paragon

It'd be nice to get the instructions to make a replica as well. Probably after it lands though, otherwise you'll have bunches of fakes on Ebay.

There was a suggestion on the (I think) New Scientist website that a good approach would be to launch a few hundred or more of these so that distribution of landing sites could be used to map wid currents and such in the same way as all those plastic ducks that fell into the Pacific a few years ago were used to map ocean currents (as well as making it more likey that some of them would be found).

On the other hand, that could well be regarded as really expensive littering...

Hans Christian · 01-23-2008, 01:12 PM

This reminds me of something...

Just a few months ago, I folded and flown a paper airplane (the conventional dart) and wrote a wish there before throwing it into a valley near the resthouse where we were making our annual school retreat, because I was in some sort of a "fight" with my best friend...

The paper plane caught some good thermals just seconds after leaving, and it flew for a good 5 minutes plus and travelled a distance more or less 100 meters from the point where I threw it... the valley depth was about 100-300 feet...

and after a few days, we made up, like it didn't happened at all...

I can't resist posting her picture here... so I hope you guys bear with me...

her name's Sarah by the way...

ok this is getting waaay OT... back to the topic... hehe...

This idea seems farfetched, I doubt that the paper plane they want to throw from the ISS would survive its mach 25 dip into the atmosphere... but then that plane would be very light and will have a high drag ratio... so who knows...

its a simple experiment, so I guess it wont hurt anyone, or anyone's budget...

Hans Christian · 01-23-2008, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYC Irish

Has our hobby finally reached Hyper Sonic speeds?

In all fairness its a gonner as far as finding afterwards...however as a kid I did launch a few helium balloons with my name an address in them, 2 replies from what I remember, One from Normandy and another from Rouen, outside paris...

Not too bad eh?

John John

That's a nice way to make pen pals sir...

01-22-2008, 08:15 AM	#1 (permalink)
NYC Irish Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Cork Ireland Posts: 484	Mach 7 Paper Airplane anyone? This is beyond cool.. A "Paper Airplane" to be launched from the ISS and hopefully survive its flight at speeds or Mach 7 + to Earth... Personally I would have had Dhanners Design it... A paper plane might not seem ideally suited to space travel, but a Japanese engineering professor is collaborating with origami masters to design a small paper spacecraft that could be launched from the International Space Station and survive a descent to Earth. A prototype was successfully tested in a wind tunnel last week. "This origami airplane might some day actually fly," says Jim Longuski, an expert in aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, in the US. Origami spaceplane to launch from space station ::: Pink Tentacle __________________ Building Now: Frunkisss 1/96

01-22-2008, 08:25 AM	#2 (permalink)
SCEtoAux Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: USA Posts: 705	That would be neat. Space Ship One did not need a lot of heat protection because Rutan's design did not descend fast enough to create a lot of friction. SS1 is a lot bigger than that origami plane would be. __________________ ~Doug~ AC006299 Project Gutenberg

01-22-2008, 08:31 AM	#3 (permalink)
Lex Dollmaker Card Models Moderator Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Beijing -- 1400m from the Olympic Stadium! Posts: 2,177	We could fold a bigger paper place in space, that's sure >_< __________________ Model design isn't hard, finding reference is! Recent works: Hanzel/Gretel, De Havilland Comet-4B, F-25, Meirin and the White Knight

01-22-2008, 09:00 AM	#5 (permalink)
Lex Dollmaker Card Models Moderator Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Beijing -- 1400m from the Olympic Stadium! Posts: 2,177	--A radio beacon on it would do nicely... __________________ Model design isn't hard, finding reference is! Recent works: Hanzel/Gretel, De Havilland Comet-4B, F-25, Meirin and the White Knight

01-22-2008, 11:31 AM	#6 (permalink)
Paragon Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Greenville NC, USA Posts: 728	It'd be nice to get the instructions to make a replica as well. Probably after it lands though, otherwise you'll have bunches of fakes on Ebay. __________________ My Model Downloads: New Cylon Basestar F-25 Shrike Blue Angels Colors http://www.freewebs.com/paragon19/

01-22-2008, 08:53 AM	#4 (permalink)
dhanners Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: st. paul, mn, usa Posts: 301	That would be mondo cool. Given that the Earth's surface is mostly water, though, I'm wondering about being able to find where it lands. And once it enters some of those currents in the upper atmosphere, something that light could stay aloft for days or weeks, no? Then again, maybe the thing could be made out of some sort of super-duper radar-reflective paper so it could be easily tracked.

01-22-2008, 12:01 PM	#7 (permalink)
NYC Irish Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Cork Ireland Posts: 484	HAs out hobby finally reached Hyper Sonic speeds? In all fairness its a gonner as far as finding afterwards...however as a kid I did launch a few helium balloons with my name an address in them, 2 replies from what I remember, One from Normandy and another from Rouen, outside paris... Not too bad eh? John John __________________ Building Now: Frunkisss 1/96

01-22-2008, 12:08 PM	#8 (permalink)
zathros Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Connecticut Posts: 418	If they can get the folds right maybe it will "fold" space

01-23-2008, 01:12 PM	#10 (permalink)
Hans Christian Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Imus, Cavite, Philippines Posts: 813	This reminds me of something... Just a few months ago, I folded and flown a paper airplane (the conventional dart) and wrote a wish there before throwing it into a valley near the resthouse where we were making our annual school retreat, because I was in some sort of a "fight" with my best friend... The paper plane caught some good thermals just seconds after leaving, and it flew for a good 5 minutes plus and travelled a distance more or less 100 meters from the point where I threw it... the valley depth was about 100-300 feet... and after a few days, we made up, like it didn't happened at all... I can't resist posting her picture here... so I hope you guys bear with me... her name's Sarah by the way... ok this is getting waaay OT... back to the topic... hehe... This idea seems farfetched, I doubt that the paper plane they want to throw from the ISS would survive its mach 25 dip into the atmosphere... but then that plane would be very light and will have a high drag ratio... so who knows... its a simple experiment, so I guess it wont hurt anyone, or anyone's budget... __________________ the sky is NOT the limit... Study/Work Smarter, not Harder Last edited by Hans Christian; 01-23-2008 at 01:47 PM.

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