Not your father's paper airplane
January 16, 2008 8:26 AM   Subscribe

Mach 7 Origami Plane - Designs for origami planes abound. How many of them reach Mach? How many get launched from the International Space Station? A team from the University of Tokyo is planning just such a launch.
posted by caddis (19 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
The lack of re-entry heat will no doubt bathe us in space-organisms that will kill all life on earth. Heckuva job Brownie!
posted by blue_beetle at 8:32 AM on January 16, 2008


Odds are good it will land in the ocean, no?
posted by jquinby at 8:49 AM on January 16, 2008


This is all fun and games until someone loses an eye. At least at Mach 7 it probably won't hurt.
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:52 AM on January 16, 2008


So... they have nothing better to do, then?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 8:54 AM on January 16, 2008


cool! This will be fun for the people up there, and probably an experiment of some kind.
posted by webgurl at 9:00 AM on January 16, 2008


More like Ori-GAY-me, amirite?

Is this thing on?
posted by Mister_A at 9:06 AM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]


This 2 minute test tells me how tired I am of the space program.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 9:11 AM on January 16, 2008


Well as long as it doesn't get into orbit and end up poking someone in the eye at supersonic speeds decades from now...
posted by Artw at 9:12 AM on January 16, 2008


Most of the space program is just paperwork, anyway.
posted by Quonab at 9:22 AM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]


“We hope the space station crew will write a message of peace on the plane before they launch it, We don’t know where in the world the plane will land, but it would be nice to send a message to whoever finds it.”

DEATH FROM ABOVE has a nice ring to it.
posted by Artw at 9:23 AM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]


This was choice #2 after they cancelled the space-station-launched "message in a bottle" program.

DEATH FROM ABOVE has a nice ring to it.

1979!
posted by GuyZero at 9:34 AM on January 16, 2008


Next: Methodist Children's Hospital to have origami stork deliver babies.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:39 AM on January 16, 2008


10 years ago I was still a starry-eyed idealist who thought these paper airplane designs and books and programs and page-a-day calendars would actually contain, you know, good paper airplane designs. But no, they never have. I refuse to click this link.

From my parent's basement, I stab at thee.
posted by DU at 9:59 AM on January 16, 2008


7 razors?! That's one close shave!
posted by stavrogin at 10:03 AM on January 16, 2008


Damn you, stavrogin. My three bladed razor and I feel totally inadequate now after your bleak and prophetic glimpse into mankind's inescapable future. It's like watching Gattica. If you don't have a sense of perspective. or something.
posted by Stunt at 11:38 AM on January 16, 2008


No worries, Stunt. Robots are being sent into the past to prevent your mother from spawning this very moment. And if that doesn't work out the first time, we'll just send more robots every time James Cameron kills another hooker. Woo. It's been a lot of dead hookers these last two decades.
posted by stavrogin at 4:43 AM on January 17, 2008


Now it's boomerangs too. My boomerang won't come back. ;(
posted by caddis at 6:54 PM on January 26, 2008


oops, forgot this
posted by caddis at 8:47 PM on January 26, 2008


“We hope the space station crew will write a message of peace on the plane..."

I'm a sloppy, guilt-ridden liberal who grew up during the Apollo program and is therefore a total space nut.

Reading stuff like the above makes me think we should completely militarise space - no humans, just vast AI-run death stars, large enough to be seen during daylight, filled with hydrogen bombs the size of small towns.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:18 PM on January 26, 2008 [1 favorite]


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