Shots of space... FROM A PAPER PLANE!!!

[MIB41]

I'm not kidding folks. Someone needs to try this with a Mego attached! Look at the pics on the link below. Absolutely amazing!

Paper plane takes photos from space | The Upshot Yahoo! News

[Mikey]

That's the best the European Space Agency can do ?

Just kidding

[megocrazy]

I was in the R/C business for over 20 years. That plane could never have survived the winds at a quarter of that altitude. I believe this will eventually be shown to be a hoax.

This would not be very difficult to pull off IMHO. The helium balloon concept makes sense. The plane not at all. The fact that it only ended up 100 miles away doesn't either. This would have hit the wind streams at a height that would have moved it way greater distance than that. Think about releasing a regular party balloon and how far that goes in a single direction based on minimal wind conditions before it's even out of human eyesight. This thing hit winds over a 100 miles an hour when it was descending from an altitude of 23 miles and paper and straws survived pressures that can collapse a 747 with the opening of a window. The whole plane idea is what causes my doubt.

If you lifted a standard round insulated capsule, containing a camera and a gps tracking unit, with a helium balloon and used a parachute release similar to the one used on model rockets to help slow the descent, I could believe it.

The whole plane returning unscathed comment just doesn't make sense. I'm not even sure the plane could hold the necessary equipment to pull this off. A 3" wing span plane is not really that big in the model airplane hobby.

[Doc]

I wonder how they handle the recovery? Popular mechanics has done storys on the next generation of drones and there are so amazing ultra lite designs. Super fragile looking that operate at those altitudes for weeks sometimes months. They are recoverable/reusable so I can see it being done.

[megocrazy]

I wonder how they handle the recovery? Popular mechanics has done storys on the next generation of drones and there are so amazing ultra lite designs. Super fragile looking that operate at those altitudes for weeks sometimes months. They are recoverable/reusable so I can see it being done.

Being made of super light materials like graphite, carbon fiber, and high tensile nylons and cables is much different than paper and straws.

I'm not saying a couple of IT guys couldn't have pulled off taking some nice space pictures, I have a friend from the R/C hobby that does aerial photos for corporations with an electric three prop heli that is constructed of wooden dowels. But he is only a couple of hundred feet high.

I'm just doubtful they could have retrieved a paper and straw constructed plane in one piece that was 23 miles off the ground. I've seen rough "successful" landings on R/C planes built of spruce and canvas or vinyl, that have caused wings to snap. Remember too, that the plane would have had to hold a camera system that could take a halfway decent photo and possibly be aimed in a particular direction. While micro camera technology is no big deal, there is cost to the good stuff. Aiming it would be more weight. All to be supported by this same structure. Just seems a bit far fetched with the tools they used based on my experience.

[johnmiic]

Hey Chuck. They stated the plane was found 23 miles from takeoff point. Similarly the guy who sent the vid-camera up on a weather balloon in upstate NY the other month said their capsule landed only 25 miles from where they had take-off. Do you think that indicates a copy-cat story or repeat results from a similar experiment?

[megocrazy]

I don't know. the altitude makes a huge difference. How high did the weather balloon go? I would tend to believe the distance being 100 miles, more than the plane landing intact story. I guess if you hit an east-west stream at a high altitude and then crossed into a west-east stream at another point they could in affect cancel each other out and you would end up near where you started out at. My son has actually worked on the NWS weather balloons. He's away right now so I haven't been able to chat with him about what he may know if anything. He's an electronics guy so he may not have any insight on the actual travel habits of a weather balloon, though he has some knowledge on their GPS tracking systems. Funny his company actually has a major plant in upstate NY. Wonder if the guy with the weather balloon was associated with them.