The world’s first-ever wooden satellite is slated for launch in 2023, in Japan.
Through this, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency seeks to maximise the benefits of using wood in space development: environmental friendliness and low cost.
The novel satellite, a cube with each side measuring 10 centimeters, will be covered with wood and solar cells while the interior contains an electronic substrate. Researchers from Kyoto University and Sumitomo Forestry Co. report that the satellite will burn upon reentry into the atmosphere, easing its environmental impact.
Both institutions are slated to test the material’s durability in space as early as February, using an extravehicular experimental device, care of the International Space Station.
The team is led by Takao Doi, the first Japanese astronaut to participate in extravehicular activities aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997. Doi will attach wooden sheets of varying hardness and tree species on the apparatus. These will be exposed to outer space for some nine months to study their deterioration.
Also a professor at Kyoto University, Doi said that if successful, it would lay the groundwork toward “allowing even children who are interested in space to make a satellite.”
