Japanese company Sumitomo Forestry has announced a joint development project with Kyoto University to test the idea of using wood as a component in satellite construction. As part of the announcement, officials with Sumitomo Forestry told reporters that work on the project would begin with experiments designed to test different types of wood in extreme environments.
Some of the main components of most satellites include aluminum, Kevlar, and aluminum alloys, which can withstand both temperature extremes and continuous bombardment by radiation – all in vacuum. Unfortunately, these characteristics also allow satellites to remain in orbit for a long time after their usefulness is exhausted, resulting in constant additions to the space junk around the planet. According to the World Economic Forum, there are currently an estimated 6,000 satellites orbiting the Earth, but only 60% of them are still in use. Some in the region have predicted that about 1,000 satellites will be launched each year over the next decade. Considering their lifespan, this suggests that there could be thousands more dead satellites orbiting the planet in the coming years. This space debris is also a significant threat to other satellites (they all travel thousands of miles in hours) and manned space missions. Most in the space community agree that space junk is becoming a serious problem. And there’s even worse news – the aluminum used in satellites has been found to have broken down when the satellite returns to Earth, creating hundreds or thousands of small alumina particles floating in the upper atmosphere for many years, possibly posing an environmental problem. For all these reasons, researchers with this new project are looking to replace this material with wood.
The big advantage of wood-based satellites is that they burn completely when they return to Earth. But another big bonus of using wood to make the outer shell of a satellite is that electromagnetic waves pass directly through it, which means that the antennas can be placed inside satellite structures, making them easier to design and deploy. Researchers plan to conduct experiments to find suitable candidates for wood and then see if they can be treated to stay in that space situation. They predict that by 2023 they have the product ready for testing.
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Testimonial: In search of using wood to make Japanese twin satellites (2020, December 29), from December 29, 2020 https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12- Japanese- twin- wood- satellites. Html
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