World’s First Wooden Satellite: Sustainable Spaceflight and Environmental Impact

KOMPAS.com – NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plan to launch the world’s first wooden satellite into space.

The wooden satellite was named LignoSat. The size of a coffee cup and made of magnolia wood, LignoSat will be launched into Earth orbit in the summer of 2024.

Also read: Get to know the RHESSI satellite which returned to Earth after 21 years of service

Sustainable spaceflight

The launch of this wooden satellite is an effort to make space flight more sustainable.

According to CNN, the latest research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that 10 percent of atmospheric aerosols in the stratosphere contain metal particles from space vehicles, including satellites.

The long-term impact of the metal fragments is unknown, but scientists fear it could damage Earth’s ozone layer.

While wooden satellites are better for the planet they still provide the same function as metal satellites.

Quoting Live Science, Friday (24/11/2023), wood does not burn or rot in a vacuum, but it will burn into fine ash when it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, making it a useful and biodegradable material for future satellites.

After successfully testing wood samples on the International Space Station (ISS) earlier this year, scientists are confident that the test satellite is suitable for launch.

“Three wood specimens were tested and showed no deformation after exposure to space,” the researchers said in a statement.

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“Despite an extreme outdoor environment involving significant temperature changes and exposure to intense cosmic rays and harmful solar particles for ten months, testing confirmed no decomposition or deformation, such as cracking, warping, peeling, or surface damage,” the researchers added.

To decide which wood to use, scientists sent three wood samples, namely magnolia, cherry and birch to the ISS for storage in a module exposed to space.

The researchers chose magnolia because it is less likely to break or break during manufacturing.

Space junk

Satellites in Earth orbit are one of the problems currently being faced.

More than 9,300 tonnes of space objects include space debris such as inoperative satellites and spent rocket chunks now orbiting Earth.

The satellites, made of metals such as lightweight titanium and aluminum, increase the overall brightness of the night sky by more than 10 percent over much of the planet, creating ambient light pollution that makes extraterrestrial phenomena much harder to detect.

Also read: Why are most objects in space round?

Apart from that, space debris has the potential to pose a damaging threat, one of which is to the ISS.

Wooden satellites like LignoSat should in theory be less harmful than space debris, according to researchers.

LingoSat is in the final stages of its safety review and is expected to launch on a joint mission with JAXA and NASA.

The satellite will be monitored for a minimum of six months to see its performance in the space environment, such as extreme temperature changes in space.

“A satellite circled the Earth and experienced a huge temperature difference within 90 minutes. We don’t know to what extent a satellite can withstand repeated cycles of intense temperature differences, so this has to be investigated,” added Koji Murata, a researcher at Kyoto University in Japan , who collaborated on a joint project with NASA.

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2023-11-25 05:34:00
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