eugene@ames.UUCP (Eugene Miya) (04/10/85)
I can't remember when it was posted or whether it was net.space or net.physics:
someone asked what would happen to paper airplanes flown in zero G.
The current Mission is scheduled to take a set of toys into orbit for
filming to explain various physical phenomena. I have asked the people
in charge of payload to consider asking the Crew to take one of their sheets
of paper and make an "aerobatic" airplane. I pointed out that this
would not add any additional mass to the current mission since there is
plenty of paper on board, and we can use one for "multiple use." This
additional "toy" can be filmed along with the other toys. We shall see
if I got this suggestion in time. This suggestion was simple, and it
caught my eye when the original poster proposed it. No guarantees of this
or future net suggestions making it on board.
--eugene miya
NASA Ames Research Center
{hplabs,ihnp4,dual,hao,decwrl,allegra}!ames!aurora!eugene
emiya@ames-vmsb.ARPApeterb@pbear.UUCP (04/24/85)
Eugene, Another idea is the feasibility of a paper airplane making it through reentry. I wonder if anybody has given thought to this as a recreation idea. I think it would since it would have such a large surface area to weight ratio, and that as a mechanical system is massively overdamped in terms of stability. So next time some one is out there on an EVA, cluth one of the paper airplanes in a glove before leaving and let it fly. Peter Barada ima!pbear!peterb ihnp4!inmet!pbear!peterb