Future of Engineering
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Japanese Paper Plane's Space Odyssey
Space: final frontier for the paper plane
Later this year Japanese scientists plan to launch a specially designed paper craft from the International Space Station. Travelling at 17,000mph – the orbiting speed of the station – it is likely to cover more than a million miles before plunging into the Earth's atmosphere.
A professor of aerospace engineering at Tokyo University showed the plane was capable of withstanding temperatures of up to 250C and winds seven times the speed of sound. He now plans to give a number of the 20cm planes, which have been treated with chemicals to resist heat and rain, to a Japanese astronaut for a launch from space station later this year. If the first mission is a success, the technology could be used to make unmanned spacecraft.
Full story here
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Later this year Japanese scientists plan to launch a specially designed paper craft from the International Space Station. Travelling at 17,000mph – the orbiting speed of the station – it is likely to cover more than a million miles before plunging into the Earth's atmosphere.
A professor of aerospace engineering at Tokyo University showed the plane was capable of withstanding temperatures of up to 250C and winds seven times the speed of sound. He now plans to give a number of the 20cm planes, which have been treated with chemicals to resist heat and rain, to a Japanese astronaut for a launch from space station later this year. If the first mission is a success, the technology could be used to make unmanned spacecraft.
Full story here
See also this article
Related blogposts
Space: final frontier for the paper plane
Labels: Aerospace-Engineering
PermaLink - Japanese Paper Plane's Space Odyssey posted by Ecacofonix : 9:33 AM
