Japanese company Sumitomo Forestry has announced a joint development project with Kyoto University to test the idea of using wood as part of satellite construction. As part of the announcement, Sumitomo Forestry officials told reporters that work on the project will begin with experiments designed to test different woods in extreme environments.
Some of the major components of most satellites include aluminum, kevlar and aluminum alloys, which can withstand both extreme temperatures and constant radiation bombardment – all in a vacuum. Unfortunately, these features also cause satellites to remain in orbit long after their usefulness has ended, resulting in constant additions to the space clutter that orbits the planet. According to the World Economic Forum, there are currently about 6,000 satellites orbiting the Earth, but only 60% of them are still in use. Some in the field have predicted that nearly 1,000 satellites will be launched into space every year over the next ten years. Given their lifespan, this suggests that there may be thousands of dead satellites orbiting the planet for years to come. This space debris is a significant threat to other satellites (they all travel thousands of miles per hour) as well as manned space missions. Most in the space community agree that space junk is becoming a serious problem. And there’s more bad news: The aluminum used in satellites appears to disintegrate when a satellite returns to Earth, creating hundreds or thousands of tiny alumina particles that float in the upper atmosphere for years, potentially posing an environmental problem . For all these reasons, with this new project, the researchers want to replace these materials with wood.
The big advantage of wood-based satellites is that they would burn up completely when they return to Earth. But another major bonus of using wood to make the outer shell of a satellite is that electromagnetic waves would pass through it, meaning that antennas can be placed in satellite structures, making them easier to design and deploy. The researchers plan to look for suitable wood candidates and then run experiments to see if they can be treated to withstand the space conditions. They predict that they will have a product ready for testing by 2023.
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