Any kid who’s ever made a paper airplane has dreamed of throwing it off a tall skyscraper to see how far it can actually fly. And at least one kid who grew up to become a professor at Tokyo University’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics has held onto that dream. But why stop at tall buildings or even mountains? Shinji Suzuki currently heads up a project that wants to launch paper airplanes from space, and see how they survive the trip back to Earth.

The first issue that comes to mind is that the real space shuttle requires bleeding-edge, heat-resistant tiles in order to survive the trip home. How would a paper airplane even have a chance? Well the origami paper they intend to use is made of sugar cane fibers sprayed with a special coating making them resistant to heat, wind and water. Shockingly, a 2.8 inch long prototype has survived speeds of Mach 7 and temperatures up to 446 degrees Fahrenheit in a hypersonic wind tunnel. So believe it or not, the plane could probably survive a trip through Earth’s upper atmosphere.

The actual paper airplane they intend to launch will be about 8 inches long, 4 inches wide and weighs about 1.05 ounces. Their last big hurdle before the ‘launch’ is to find a way to reliably track the airplane once it has been released. Otherwise the $300,000 in funding they get each year for the project will be wasted if they aren’t able to learn anything from the flight.

每个曾折过纸飞机的小孩，都梦想着道高高的大楼顶上去试飞自己的杰作，看看它究竟能飞多远。 至少现在，有这么一个孩子已经长大，而且即将实现自己的梦想，他就是来自日本东京大学航空航天工程学的教授——铃木真二。不过，凭什么我们只能在山顶或房顶上发射“飞机”呢？铃木真二最近正在筹备一个项目，他决定在从太空向地球投掷纸飞机，看看它能不能安然无恙地返回地面。
 
说到航天飞机，我们首先想到的就是，只有在高尖端科技的辅助和隔热层的保护下，飞机才可能安全降落。所以一架光用纸飞机还能有什么希望？呵呵，别急。它用的不是一般的折纸，而是由甘蔗纤维制成，表面喷涂防护层的特殊纸张，它防水防风且耐高温，而且，在地面测试中，长2.8英寸的纸飞机模型能经受住7马赫(即7倍于音速)的速度和极超音速风洞中446华氏度(合230度摄氏)高温条件的考验。所以不管你信不信，这架纸飞机极有可能成功穿过地球大气层并安全着陆。
 
实际发射的纸飞机长8英寸，宽4英寸，重量为1.05盎司。目前最大的障碍来自线路的选择，如何找到一条可靠的线路供其返回。否则，要是连飞机都找不回来得话，就什么结果都无法得出，也就是说，每年30万美金的研究经费就彻底打水漂了。