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.
鈥淭his origami airplane might some day actually fly,鈥� says , an expert in aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, in the US.
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Longuski, who was not involved in the project, says that offbeat notions often generate exciting new ideas. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 crazy at all,鈥� he told 快猫短视频.
The novel craft could inspire new designs for lightweight re-entry vehicles, or for planes to explore the upper reaches of the atmosphere, according to , from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Tokyo.
Heat resistant
Suzuki worked with members of the Japan Origami Airplane Association on the design for the plane.
They first collaborated a decade ago to design a 3-metre long paper plane shaped like a space shuttle, which was launched from the top of a mountain.
The origami space plane will be a similar design, Suzuki says, but only about 20 centimetres long and with a rounded nose to minimize aerodynamic heating.
It will also be chemically processed to incorporate silicon in the paper structure, increasing its heat resistance, although the plane shouldn鈥檛 be subjected to the fiery temperatures endured by heavier objects as they hurtle toward Earth.
When released from the International Space Station, it would be travelling at Mach 20, Suzuki says, but thanks to a large surface area and low weight it should slow considerably as it falls through the upper layers of the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere.
A smaller prototype paper plane was tested up to Mach 7 and about 200 掳C in a hypersonic wind tunnel in Tokyo last week.
鈥楴ice gimmick鈥�
In theory, the plane could come all the way down to the ground without ever getting that hot, says , at Purdue University, who was also not involved with the project.
If the paper spaceplane is ever launched, however, we might never find out what happens to it.
Suzuki plans to write a message on the plane in many languages, asking anyone who finds it to return it to the Japan Origami Airplane Association, but that鈥檚 unlikely, according to Schneider, because the plane could land almost anywhere on Earth.
A paper plane wouldn鈥檛 show up on radar and would be extremely difficult to observe through a telescope. 鈥淵ou鈥檒l drop it off and it鈥檒l disappear,鈥� Schneider told 快猫短视频. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a nice gimmick, but without a way to observe the thing it鈥檚 not much more than a nice idea.鈥�
Suzuki says he would like to develop an ultra small tracking device to attach to the plane.
