Someone in Japan clearly thinks we’re going to believe this tall tale of a paper plane that’s to be thrown to Earth from the International Space Station.

According to the Asahi newspaper (translated here), the University of Tokyo is working with the Japan Origami Airplane Association on a folded paper dart that the teams hope to launch from orbit sometime soon.

Professor Shinichi Suzuki of the University of Tokyo is the latest slightly eccentric pioneer. His team is testing a paper aeroplane they want to launch from the International Space Station to glide back to earth. The plan is to ask a Japanese astronaut who will travel to the ISS later this year to throw about 100 of the planes into space.

The plane looks somewhat like the Space Shuttle. The models tested in the laboratory’s hypersonic wind tunnel are made of paper treated with a compound that increases its heat resistance.

Setting up the experiment takes some time. It is not easy to fix the prototype in place, and then to attach the wires which will measure the temperatures it is subjected to. So far the planes have resisted wind speeds of up to Mach 7, seven times the speed of sound. They have also endured temperatures of around 300 degrees Celsius.

[VIA and VIA]