The environmentally friendly LignaSat probe – set to orbit this summer – has been created to combat harmful aluminium particles

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.

  • learningduck@programming.devEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    It’s for reentry. They burn without leaving alumina particles.

    All the satellites which re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere burn and create tiny alumina particles, which will float in the upper atmosphere for many years,” Takao Doi, a Japanese astronaut and aerospace engineer with Kyoto University, warned recently. “Eventually, it will affect the environment of the Earth.

    • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, but those reentry particles are over the middle of the ocean, and the amount currently is absolutely tiny compared to things like meteorites. I’ll look in the article, but how do they anticipate high altitude metallic particles effecting the environment?

      Edit: I can’t find the research paper they were referencing that aluminum particles deplete the ozone layer. It had a redirect link, but my browser couldn’t open it. starlink-satellite-reentry-ozone-depletion-atmosphere