Japanese researchers have built a satellite out of wood for the first time. The cube-shaped satellite with an edge length of 10 centimeters will be launched into space in September by a rocket from the private US space company SpaceX, its designers, scientists from Kyoto University and timber company Sumitomo Forestry, said on Tuesday.
With the new design method, they pursue the goal of reducing space debris in the Earth’s atmosphere. Upon return, the magnolia wood satellite is expected to burn up completely. In this way, unlike the previous return of satellites to the Earth’s atmosphere, no polluting metal particles would be released.
Such metal particles can have negative consequences for the environment and telecommunications, as the developers of the wooden satellite have pointed out. “Satellites that are not made of metal should become the standard,” astronaut Takao Doi, a researcher at Kyoto University, said at a news conference.
From the ISS into space
The wooden satellite called LignoSat will be handed over to the Japanese space agency Jaxa next week. A SpaceX rocket, launching in September from the US space station Kennedy Space Center, will then deliver the new satellite to the International Space Station (ISS). There it will be sent into space by the Japanese research module to test its stability in space. As a spokeswoman for Sumitomo Forestry said, the wooden satellite must also be able to withstand large temperature differences.
Source: Krone
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