Flying a paper airplane from the International Space Station to earth

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.

[Billy Jack]

Successful rentry of a paper plane depends upon the tensil strength of the paper and the entry angle of incidence on the first.000001% of the earths atmosphere sufficient to effect the glide path. Calculations suggest a possible need for the paper mate to to ride piggyback for preentry trajectory control.

[Scanner]

AND? Why should I care? Listen as long as you’re going to spend money
On silly foolish things I want a grant so I can find out which nationally
Women get the drunkest the easiest!

[Jevad]

Oh sure, re entry is the easy part, but I want to see the Arm that can launch this paper airplane from Earth to the ISS.

[Liam R]

Now why can't I get a grant to do research like that?

[Steve]

Liam R wrote:

Now why can't I get a grant to do research like that?

You're not in Japan. It's nice of them to pay for paper airplane research. I've been waiting so long.

[wlo Seattle]

Sometimes it's those wondrous simple things that save the day, literally and so to speak. I wonder if BOEING AND AIRBUS are paying attention?

[Fearful Ralph]

Didn't anyone notice that the paper airplane reach 300 degrees Celsius (that is over 570 degrees F) and didn't even get singed?

Now that is paper with an attitude.

[Liam R]

Fearful Ralph wrote:

Didn't anyone notice that the paper airplane reach 300 degrees Celsius (that is over 570 degrees F) and didn't even get singed?
Now that is paper with an attitude.

300 degrees and mach 7! Oh, yeah... I noticed. I also noticed the origami-like quality of the folding to make a mor solid 3-d structure than the typical paper airplane. I wonder if that pattern is available anywhere.

[Nick Grotto]

They should be testing to see if a dork thrown from space would reach it back here to make another post to this stupid site.

[TrilbyKat]

I'll be sure to check back in November when they really launch it from the Space Station. This kind of stuff is why I just love Japan.

For all you grant-writing hopefuls out there, here are some links. Let me know what you get.

http://www.grants.gov/
http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/issu...
http://www.colsa.unh.edu/research/grants.html