A Paper Plane launched Into Space

I just came across this and it made me smile , space is open to all of us .
A group of British space buffs is celebrating the successful launch of a paper plane into space.

Amateur space enthusiasts Steve Daniels, John Oates and Lester Haines made the plane out of paper straws covered with paper. They attached the aircraft - which has a 3ft wingspan - and a camera to a helium balloon and released it into the air on October 28. It soared an astonishing 23 miles above the ground, taking dozens of photographs, before gliding back to earth.

There was no point to the exercise, IT expert Steve Davies told Sky News Online. "We did it because we wanted to see if we could - and we could! "We expected a few niggles and thought that the plane would come back to earth in bits but it was all in one piece. "It's a world first, I believe. I understand the Australians are going to challenge us and we look forward to that. But we did it first!"

So when do we launch the first ATS space mission

uk.news.yahoo.com...

reply to post by gortex


When the Apollo missions were first undertook, they used some real early 20th century technology. Then, all of a sudden, we seemed to forget that it doesn't take billions of dollars.

Good to see garage science isn't dead yet.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


It just goes to show that people now have the tech to do something that only a few years ago would have been impossible .
And get good results



I can't wait for the paper shuttle mission to the Moon

Here is the video of the last minuets of the flight [ Caution ...this may make you Dizzy ]

Oh this just made my day star+flag for this. Stories like this make me wonder about what else we as a species are capable of. Also I think that should be the motto of everyone "We did it just to see if we could" I wonder how many things would get accomplished if quite a few scientists and other like-minded individuals thought like that when performing a task.

reply to post by MystiqueAgent

MystiqueAgent
I wonder how many things would get accomplished if quite a few scientists and other like-minded individuals thought like that when performing a task.

I totally agree .... but I would also add how much could we achieve without the interference of Governments .

reply to post by gortex


One can only dream of the world we would be leaving in at this point. It would certainly be interesting if most of the theories and ideals we hold so dearly or rather loosely now became truth and reality.

Not to poop on the party, but "Space" actually "starts" at about 62 miles above the Earth (the actual "line of demarcation" varies somewhat depending on the definition of the term "space")


Nevertheless, an honorable and fanciful achivement, to be sure! Congrats!



We should never thing of "Government" as an obstacle, but merely as a challenge.


Indeed, if we, as a species, are ever to rise to our true potential, we must never think of Any thing as an obstacle, but as an additional opportunity to excercise our creativity.

Around 1:07, something bright and disk shaped goes in and out of the view. Can anybody slow it down and take a peek at it?

reply to post by Bhadhidar

Bhadhidar
We should never thing of "Government" as an obstacle, but merely as a challenge.

Well NASA has certainly been "challenged" by Governments over recent years , I think its criminal that they deem it worthwhile to spend countless trillions of dollars on Black Projects aimed at ever more technological ways to kill people while the space program heads back to launching rockets .

I think Virgin Galactic and the other privateer projects may well be our best hope for Space exploration in the future , Maybe NASA has had its day , maybe it is time for the people to take the future of space exploration into the future .

reply to post by Violater1


Good catch , cant see what you are referring to myself but hopefully someone can get a screen grab of it so we can have a look ,
How cool would it be if a privateer got a shot of an ET ship in the atmosphere

23 miles above Earth? not exactly space.

reply to post by masterp


I guess the are limited by how far the balloon will go before it pops , as a "We did it because we wanted to see if we could " experiment I think the pictures they captured are pretty impressive .
OK so technically they didn't make it into space but so what , the picture looks pretty spacey to me

I see what you are talking about. Don't know what it is but it's definitely something

In this day and age since we use only mathematics to calculate gravity pull and orbital mechanics and aerodynamic behavior on the launch vehicles it is in theory very possible that we can send anything in to space if we make it small and resilient enough and find ways for it to not break apart and malfunction from the hardships of the sheer forces applied to it while being propelled through the atmosphere, and the cold versus hot environment that exists outside our atmosphere. There is no reason for us to not consider sending anything small from plain materials in to orbit. We could even be developing micro weapons for microscopic vehicles in the future.

Given the current pace of advancements in nano engineering and reslience of materials, everyone would be having their own space weapons within a decade. So space superiority might soon become a thing of the past.. Unless of course someone applies a Global ban on testing launches. We are close to this one after 9/11.

and yes the third or fourth world war like Einstein used to say might be fought with stones, but a simple stone falling from orbit is the equivalent of a nuke down here on the Earth surface. So if someone finds the way to simply shoot rocks in to space and can be caught by another kind of technology to be released later and return to the surface with the force of gravity applied to them a hundred fold, then someone could have a very effective device that can nuke anything from orbit without it having the side effects of the radiation fallout. It makes nuclear arsenal obsolete. It can be completely stealthy and undetectable, deployed from anywhere any time and cost very little if the idea applied is well thought out.

Things that make you go uhm...

Beautiful story.
I remember reading something similar last year.
Hope you like it too:
www.popsci.com...

Here's the amazing part about it: Our planet is probably the most beautiful planet in our solar system...and many people dont respect her. We look at Saturn and are amazed by it's rings...we look at Mars...and think of all the possiblities...and we don't even bother to look at our own planet, and see how much we abuse her, and take her for granted. We certainly don't FEAR her!

Planet earth yields trees of all kinds, flowers, fruits and veggies, uncountable wildlife, stars, clouds, amazing wonders, people on it that can do amazing things, and yet...we take it all for granted....as if.......

One thing people should realize is this: in the blink of an eye, earth can unleash a fury, that mankind has never before seen or witnessed. At any given moment, she could blow off one of her volcanoes, like she's doing at Merabi, and that COULD BE the end of MANKIND! Or, she could shake the ground that we walk on, and swallow us up! She could twist up the winds, and cause the ocean to forget what God commanded to do..."Stay"! She could sneeze and we would be nothing more than the snot that came out of her nose!

It behooves us...to stop playing games with her...and take better care of this beautiful planet; at all, and any cost; even if it means squashing our useless ways of living....BEFORE we say, "What have we done?"