The environmentally friendly LignaSat probe – set to orbit this summer – has been created to combat harmful aluminium particles

The environmentally friendly LignaSat probe – set to orbit this summer – has been created to combat harmful aluminium particles

Japanese scientists have created one of the world’s most unusual spacecraft – a tiny satellite that is made of timber.

The LignoSat probe has been built of magnolia wood, which, in experiments carried out on the International Space Station (ISS), was found to be particularly stable and resistant to cracking. Now plans are being finalised for it to be launched on a US rocket this summer.

The timber satellite has been built by researchers at Kyoto University and the logging company Sumitomo Forestry in order to test the idea of using biodegradable materials such as wood to see if they can act as environmentally friendly alternatives to the metals from which all satellites are currently constructed.

  • cosmicrookie@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2213·
    5 months ago

    Wood is not biodegradable in space. What are they on about? A wooden satellite would not be environmentally friendly debris. It would just be wooden debris

    • learningduck@programming.devEnglish
      24·
      5 months ago

      It’s for reentry. Normal satellite create alumina particles.

      All the satellites which re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere burn and create tiny alumina particles, which will float in the upper atmosphere for many years,” Takao Doi, a Japanese astronaut and aerospace engineer with Kyoto University, warned recently. “Eventually, it will affect the environment of the Earth.

    • doctorcrimson@lemmy.todayEnglish
      9·
      5 months ago

      I suppose it’s got a lower carbon emission than steel or aluminum even after you account for it burning up on de-orbit, considering the fuel cost for metal refining.