Origami Space Planes Could Solve a Major Problem in Orbit

Summary

Building a spacecraft could one day be as simple as folding a piece of paper into a plane and letting aerodynamics do the rest. A team of researchers from the University of Tokyo simulated the release of a paper airplane from the International Space Station (ISS) to see if would survive atmospheric reentry. In a paper published in Acta Astronautica, the researchers demonstrated how origami may be the solution to low Earth orbit’s growing trash problem. Rather than relying solely on metals to construct spacecraft, the team behind the paper argues that a standard sheet of paper could do the job instead and easily burn up in the atmosphere during reentry. For their study, the researchers created a paper plane with an aluminum tail and placed it in a wind tunnel to see how it would fare in space. The idea is simple, and it aims to show how organic materials can be used to create a more sustainable orbital environment. The origami space plane is made from a sheet of uncoated A4 printing paper, with folded layers at the nose to shift its center of mass upstream and ensure aerodynamic stability. “Such spacecraft have not yet flown in space,” the paper reads. “It is unclear whether their flight dynamics in the highly rarefied atmosphere in [low Earth orbit] would be similar to those of a usual ground-based origami plane, and whether the plane would survive or burn up during atmospheric entry.” Of course, the entire spacecraft wouldn’t be made solely of paper. Instead, specific components—like a wing or drag sail—could be constructed from paper-based materials. To test it out, the researchers first created a simulation of the paper plane being launched from the ISS at an altitude of 248 miles (400 kilometers) and a speed of 17,448 miles per hour (7,800 meters per second). The paper plane remained stable and glided through the space-like conditions. It began to tumble at a lower altitude of 74 miles above Earth’s surface (120 kilometers) and spun out of control. The tumbling ...