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Nephlyte
Misfortunate One



Registered: 10/11/05
Posts: 1,025
Loc: South Texas
Last seen: 13 years, 5 months
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I dream of one day riding a paper plane down from space.
#8056549 - 02/22/08 01:38 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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My dream is finally getting closer to becoming a reality.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23029202/wid/11915829?gt1=10939
KASHIWA CITY, Japan - A spacecraft made of folded paper zooming through the skies may sound far-fetched, but Japanese scientists plan to launch paper planes from the International Space Station to see if they make it back to Earth.
On Wednesday the University of Tokyo researchers tested small, origami planes made of special paper for 30 seconds in 482 degrees Fahrenheit heat and wind at seven times the speed of sound. The planes survived the wind tunnel test intact.
The theory is that paper craft, being much lighter than space shuttles, may escape the worst of the friction and heat that much heavier space shuttles face on re-entry to the atmosphere.
"Paper planes are extremely light so they slow down when the air is thin and can gradually descend," said Shinji Suzuki, a professor of aerospace engineering.
Suzuki said the technology might one day be used for unmanned spacecraft.
The team has asked a Japanese astronaut to release the 8-inch planes, made from paper chemically treated to resist heat and water, from the space station.
It will take several months for the craft to reach Earth, and there is no way to predict their landing spot if they make it, Suzuki said.
"It's going to be the space version of a message in a bottle. It will be great if someone picks one up," he said. "We are thinking of writing messages on the planes saying 'if found, please contact us' in a couple of languages."
-------------------- "To do right is to know what you want. Now when you are dissatisfied with yourself it's because you are after something you don't really want. What objects are you proposing to yourself? Are they the objects you really value? If they are not, you are cheating yourself. I don't meant that if you chose to pursue the objects you most value, you will attain them; of course not. Your experience will tell you that. But success in getting after much labor what you really don't care for is the bitterest and most ridiculous failure." -George Santayana
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
Last seen: 5 months, 23 days
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Re: I dream of one day riding a paper plane down from space. [Re: Nephlyte]
#8057070 - 02/22/08 03:40 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Absolute craziness.
I Japan.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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Helixx
Mood:Fragglerocked


Registered: 06/07/07
Posts: 1,623
Last seen: 10 years, 2 months
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Re: I dream of one day riding a paper plane down from space. [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8057080 - 02/22/08 03:43 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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where did you find that pic ? its !
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
Last seen: 5 months, 23 days
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Re: I dream of one day riding a paper plane down from space. [Re: Helixx]
#8057091 - 02/22/08 03:44 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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