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.
I would have thought that space debris is deadly no matter if it’s made of wood or metal. If something comes at you at a few kilometers a second, it doesn’t really matter what material it is.
The goal isn’t preventing the whole “lots of tiny pieces moving around could collide with you” issue.
The article mentions that aluminium fragments from space debris, upon reentry, end up damaging the ozone layer. The wooden ones do not.
But wouldn’t the wooden one catch fire and unlike aluminium it won’t just stop burning after it enters the atmosphere would it ?
EDIT :Oh i just got it its a satelite they don’t have to bring it back i think
Yes, on re-entry. But the idea is probably that it’s less environmentally damaging than its metal counterparts burning up on re-entry.
I don’t think there’s much that stops burning on re-entry.
It would mostly disperse into ash on re-entry.
Would wood splintering cause more small projectiles than if it were made of contemporary materials? Maybe the strength of the projectiles being less than metal might help if it were to hit a space station, but an astronaut on a space walk would have a different story.
If you read the article, it’s because the tiny particles of carbon from the wood are less damaging for the environment then filling the upper atmosphere with aluminum particles when they burn up upon reentry.