Japan to launch world’s first wooden satellite to combat space pollution
Japan to launch world’s first wooden satellite to combat space pollution
The environmentally friendly LignoSat probe – set to orbit this summer – has been created to combat harmful aluminium particles
Japan to launch world’s first wooden satellite to combat space pollution::The environmentally friendly LignoSat probe – set to orbit this summer – has been created to combat harmful aluminium particles
The idea of an Asian country launching a wooden satellite sounds like a racist Simpsons joke from the 1990s. What a time to be alive.
Reading the title I was like man the Onion is getting a little edgy until I read the source. Truth is stranger than fiction.
no living creatures to cause it to rot
Soon termites will evolve for space environment. On a serious note this does seem cool. The amount of satellites going to burn like disposable starlink ones will be an issue. This prototype is small, but this would be good for cubesats.
Feels like one of the few instances of humans doing something about issues before shit hits the roof.
From the makers of Snakes on a Plane…Bugs on a Satellite
On this episode of Gilligan's Island, the professor makes a satellite.
Out of bamboo and coconuts. And Gilligan has to power it with a stationary bicycle.
Launched with a comical slingshot made from two palm trees roughly shaping a V form.
Handcrafted artisan satellites? Yes, please!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
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.
To tackle the problem, Kyoto researchers set up a project to evaluate types of wood to determine how well they could withstand the rigours of space launch and lengthy flights in orbit round the Earth.
The first tests were carried out in laboratories that recreated conditions in space, and wood samples were found to have suffered no measurable changes in mass or signs of decomposition or damage.
Murata added that a final decision had still to be made on the launch vehicle, with choices now narrowed down to a flight this summer on an Orbital Sciences Cygnus supply ship to the ISS or a similar SpaceX Dragon mission slightly later in the year.
It is estimated that more than 2,000 spacecraft are likely to be launched annually in coming years, and the aluminium that they are likely to deposit in the upper atmosphere as they burn up on re-entry could soon pose major environmental problems.
Recent research carried out by scientists at the University of British Columbia, Canada, revealed that aluminium from re-entering satellites could cause serious depletion of the ozone layer which protects the Earth from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation and could also affect the amount of sunlight that travels through the atmosphere and reaches the ground.
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