2023-11-30 11:53:23
Next February, Japan will send a satellite made of magnolia wood – they tested it with three different wood samples. Scientists believe that, after the tests carried out on the International Space Station (ISS), the satellite is now ready to be launched into space.
It is the world’s first artificial wooden satellite and is being developed by the Space Wood Laboratory at Kyoto University, in a project of the Japanese space agency (JAXA) and NASA.
One of the reasons why they have decided to make this wooden satellite is because it is a useful and biodegradable material. In space, wood does not rot or burn, it is incinerated into fine ash upon entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
“Three wood samples were tested and showed no deformation after exposure to space,” the researchers said in a statement. “Despite the extreme environment of outer space involving significant temperature changes and exposure to intense cosmic rays and dangerous solar particles for 10 months, testing confirmed that there is no decomposition or deformation, such as cracks, warping, peeling or damage to the surface “, reports ‘Europa Press’.
It could be one more step to reduce space debris. More than 9,300 tons of space objects, including space debris such as inoperative satellites and pieces of spent rocket stages, orbit Earth. They cause light pollution and make distant spatial phenomena more difficult to detect.
According to researchers, wooden satellites like LignoSat should, in theory, be less harmful than space debris.
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