Origami Space Planes Could Solve a Major Problem in Orbit
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 motion is expected at this altitude, and the severe aerodynamic heating would result in the paper plane burning up in the atmosphere at around 55 to 58 miles (90 to 110 kilometers) altitude, according to the paper.
The researchers then placed a physical model in the Kashiwa Hypersonic and High Enthalpy Wind Tunnel at the University of Tokyo to see how it would hold up during reentry conditions. They subjected it to Mach 7 speeds for about seven seconds, during which the plane's nose bent and the wings showed signs of charring. It didn't fully disintegrate, though, but it most likely would have had they kept it in there for a longer period of time, the researchers said.
Upon atmospheric reentry, traditional spacecraft leave behind metallic particles and chemicals that damage the ozone layer. The paper plane, on the other hand, is made of organic material that doesn't pose an environmental threat. Still, there are some challenges that remain. Considering how small the paper plane is, it does not reflect radar strongly enough and would be hard to track in orbit. The researchers suggest equipping it with a miniaturized position, navigation, and timing transceiver. It's also extremely sensitive to aerodynamic drag and therefore can only spend so much time in orbit, so it can be used for short-duration missions with small payloads.
The origami space plane will likely not be a good fit for a wide range of missions, but the researchers suggest a version of it could be used as a passive probe to measure atmospheric density or as a platform for low-cost and short-lived missions in low Earth orbit. 'Owing to the extremely low cost of a paper space plane, multiple deployments could be conducted at the same time, and repeated at regular intervals, providing simultaneous distributed measurements,' the scientists explained in their paper.
The idea of a childlike space plane gliding through the atmosphere may seem too simple, but using paper on spacecraft could help us resolve the overpopulation of metal crowding low Earth orbit and disintegrating into chunks of space scrap.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Gizmodo
an hour ago
- Gizmodo
Physicists Blow Up Gold With Giant Lasers, Accidentally Disprove Renowned Physics Model
Scientists equipped with giant lasers have blown up gold at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, heating it to 14 times its boiling point. For a chilling second, they thought they broke physics, but they fortunately did no such thing. That said, they broke something else: a decades-long model in physical chemistry having to do with the fundamental properties of matter. In an experiment presented today in Nature, researchers, for the first time ever, demonstrated a way to directly measure the temperature of matter in extreme states, or conditions with intensely high temperatures, pressures, or densities. Using the new technique, scientists succeeded in capturing gold at a temperature far beyond its boiling point—a procedure called superheating—at which point the common metal existed in a strange limbo between solid and liquid. The results suggest that, under the right conditions, gold may have no superheating limit. If true, this could have a wide range of applications across spaceflight, astrophysics, or nuclear chemistry, according to the researchers. The study is based on a two-pronged experiment. First, the scientists used a laser to superheat a sample of gold, suppressing the metal's natural tendency to expand when heated. Next, they used ultrabright X-rays to zap the gold samples, which scattered off the surface of the gold. By calculating the distortions in the X-ray's frequency after colliding with the gold particles, the team locked down the speed and temperature of the atoms. The experimental result seemingly refutes a well-established theory in physics, which states that structures like gold can't be heated more than three times their boiling point, 1,948 degrees Fahrenheit (1,064 degrees Celsius). Beyond those temperatures, superheated gold is supposed to reach the so-called 'entropy catastrophe'—or, in more colloquial terms, the heated gold should've blown up. The researchers themselves didn't expect to surpass that limit. The new result disproves the conventional theory, but it does so in a big way by far overshooting the theoretical prediction, showing that it's possible to heat gold up to a jaw-dropping 33,740 degrees F (18,726 degrees C). 'We looked at the data, and somebody just said, 'Wait a minute. Is this axis correct? That's…really hot, isn't it?' Thomas White, study lead author and physicist at the University of Nevada, Reno, recalled to Gizmodo during a video call. To be fair, this superheated state lasted for a mere several trillionths of a second. Also, it blew up. But that's still 'long enough to be interesting,' White said, adding that 'if you could prevent it from expanding, [theoretically speaking] you could heat it forever.' To which he added: 'I'm very thankful that I get to blow stuff up with giant lasers for discoveries. And that's my job, you know.' This conjecture will have to withstand follow-up experiments with both gold and other materials, White noted. But from a practical standpoint, the superheated gold kept itself together long enough such that the team was able to directly capture its temperature using their new technique, Bob Nagler, study senior author and staff scientist at SLAC, explained to Gizmodo in a video call. 'Actually, it's a funny thing; temperature is one of the physical quantities that humans have known for the longest time—but we don't measure temperature itself,' Nagler said. 'We measure something that temperature influences. For example, a mercury thermometer measures how temperature changes the volume of a blob of mercury.' This could pose a problem when studying some real-life examples of hot, dense matter in extreme states, such as the center of a star, the nose cone of a spaceship, or the insides of a fusion reactor. Knowing the temperature—a fundamental physical property—of matter in such situations could greatly inform how we investigate or, for the latter two, manipulate them to our benefit. Often, however, these systems operate on temperature-dependent variables that are difficult to gauge, Nagler said. Technically, you could reproduce them in labs, but they'll 'very quickly explode,' he noted—notwithstanding the fact that you'd still have to know the real-life temperature of the system being replicated to ensure the experiments are valid. 'So you have a chicken-and-egg problem,' he said. That's why the scientists are eager to inspect how their new technique could help in this regard. 'That's the most exciting thing about this work—we now have a thermometer for all these crazy experiments we've been doing,' White said. For example, the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory uses a gold cylinder to contain their nuclear fusion experiments, firing X-rays at this cylinder to drive the fusion reactor, White explained. 'But we're also thinking of doing directly fusion-related experiments now,' he said. 'To recreate fusion conditions, or the materials that make the fusion reactors, and just measure their temperature—which, actually, has been a long-standing question [in physics].' The team is already applying the technique to other materials, such as silver and iron, which they happily report produced some promising data. The team will be busy over the next few months analyzing what these metals could be telling us, the scientists said. The project, for sure, is in full ignition.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
China issues ethical guidelines for autonomous driving technology
BEIJING (Reuters) -China's science and technology ministry on Wednesday issued ethical guidelines for autonomous driving technology, requiring developers to prioritise user safety and refrain from spreading false information when publishing research results. Algorithms and models related to autonomous driving technology should be recorded and made accessible while data collection in the development and application of the technology should be limited to the scope required to achieve driving functions, the guidelines say. The guidelines also specify which party - the human driver or the driving system - is liable when driving with such systems, based on how advanced the system is.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
This temporary tattoo could warn you if your drink has been spiked
For decades, 'protect your drink' has been one of the foundational unofficial rules of nightlife. The threat of unwittingly consuming a date-rape drug looms so large that steps to combat that risk have become a routine part of any night out. There are even new products designed specifically to defend against having a drink spiked. That level of diligence is, unfortunately, necessary. While the nature of date-rape drugs makes it hard to track how frequently they are used, evidence suggests that millions of people are sexually assaulted every year after consuming drugs they took involuntarily. Researchers in Korea have come up with a simple and effective idea that they hope will give people an easy new way to protect themselves. It's a temporary tattoo that can instantly detect the presence of one of the most common date-rape drugs from a single drop of a suspect drink. The tattoo is made with a mix containing a chemical receptor that reacts to even tiny amounts of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) — an odorless, tasteless drug that is often used in what authorities call drug-facilitated sexual assault. When the tattoo comes in contact with GHB, it changes color from yellow to red, providing a clear indication within one second that a beverage has been tampered with. There are other products on the market that can be used to test drinks for GHB, along with other date-rape drugs like Rohypnol and ketamine, but they are difficult to use discreetly and can take up to five minutes to provide results. Someone wearing one of the tattoos, on the other hand, could easily dip their finger into their beverage, touch the tattoo and know right away whether it has been tampered with. All this can be done in secret because the tattoos can be made in any shape, so their true purpose won't be obvious to the people around you. The researchers behind the tattoos hope their innovation will one day provide a 'proactive and accessible solution' that will allow people to easily and subtly protect themselves. According to a study published in the scientific journal ACS Sensors, the tattoos were consistently able to detect small amounts of GHB — as little as 0.01 micrograms in 1 milliliter of liquid — in a variety of beverages, including whiskey, vodka, beer, coffee and soju (a popular Korean alcoholic drink). The tattoos could also prove useful after an assault has occurred, the researchers say. Authorities often struggle to determine whether a victim consumed a 'spiked' drink because common date-rape drugs stop being detectible in someone's system within a few hours and often can only be verified by a professional lab. But the tattoos can display a positive result for up to 30 days, which the researchers say 'could be important if it's needed as a form of evidence of tampering.' So far, the tattoos have only been tested with GHB, but the researchers say the same system could likely be used to detect other drugs if different chemical receptors are added. It's unclear when the tattoos might be available to the public, but the researchers said a commercial product could be on the market soon because the tattoos are inexpensive and easy to manufacture.
