The launch plan for the world’s first wooden satellite is being developed in Japan. This was reported on December 31 by Kiodo News.
The skin of the spacecraft will be made of wood. If re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere at the end of the mission, it will burn up, thus causing minimal damage to the environment, according to the developers of Kyodo State University and Sumitomo Forestry Co., which makes wood products.
The satellite is a cube with sides 10 cm. Its outer side will be covered with wood and solar panels, and the electronic component will be inside.
First, the developers intend to test the strength of wood in space. Professor, astronaut of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Takao Doi plans to attach wooden sheets of several types of trees to the outside of the International Space Station (ISS). The panels will remain in outer space for about nine months. After that, the wear of the material will be studied, as a result, the most suitable one will be chosen for the satellite.
If successful, Doi said, the project will allow “even children with an interest in space to build satellites.”
The satellite is slated to launch in 2023. A team of Japanese scientists believe that this experiment will prove the suitability of wood as an environmentally friendly material for the production of spacecraft.
On December 28, it was reported that a special satellite is being created at the Omsk State Technical University, which will be able to take away bulky space debris from the altitude of the most used orbits up to 2 thousand km. The device will either push the waste to a height of more than 3–5 thousand km from the Earth or knock it down below so that it burns up in the atmosphere.
Now in space there are almost 34 thousand particles larger than 10 cm.
Source: IZ
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
