Japan to launch paper plane from space

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The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency plans to take the art of origami paper folding to outer space, launching a paper plane from the International Space Station to Earth to learn about future spacecraft design.

The agency this week approved four space experiments, including the paper plane project, with up to 90 million yen earmarked for studies over three years, agency official Hidehiro Akashi said Thursday.

Prototype paper planes, folded in the shape of a U.S. space shuttle, survived a test in a hypersonic wind tunnel in late January at a University of Tokyo laboratory.

The prototypes, some seven centimeters long and five centimeters wide, went through Mach-7 speeds and temperatures up to 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the Japan Origami Airplane Association which initiated the project.

The conditions were close to what paper planes, which will be drawn back to Earth by gravity, could confront upon re-entering the atmosphere from space, the association said on its website.

The project got a boost after the association found paper that was chemically treated to be extremely heat resistant.

“Even after the chemical treatment, paper remains paper and it can be used for origami,” said Shinji Suzuki, a professor at the University of Tokyo’s department of aeronautics and astronautics who cooperated in the project.

“The paper plane’s return from space will give us tips about designing new spacecrafts,” he said.

Japan has an increasingly ambitious space program. The space shuttle Endeavour returned Thursday Tokyo time after beginning to set up Japan’s first space laboratory.

“The biggest problem is that we cannot predict where the plane will touch down if it manages to return. That’s because the plane will be blown away by wind after entering the troposphere,” Suzuki said.

“We are considering attaching a tiny transmitter. But if the paper plane gets heavier, it can’t escape heating up due to air resistance,” he said.

“In its initial flight, we may write on the paper of the plane in different languages, ‘please let us know when you find this.'”