Japan to launch world’s first wooden satellite to combat space pollution

www.theguardian.com

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.

22 comments

Ngl that's a really interesting idea.
Also, there's a typo in the article. They call it both "LignaSat" and "LignoSat," but I'm reasonably confident the actual name is "LigmaSat."
- What’s a ligma?
  
  Ligma Satellite!
  Wait
  
  Nothing, what's a ligma with you?
  
  Not much, whats up with you?
- Lignin is a major protein in wood, so LignoSat or LignaSat would make sense. LigmaSat loses that relationship with wood. I think LignoSat is probably correct.
I mean.. Wooden satellites or no, it's still polluting space if it it doesn't deorbit within a reasonable time frame.
The pollutants generated upon reentry are a drop in the ocean compared to big oil and Taylor swift.
- According to the article, the alumina (?) from satellites burning up depletes the ozone layer.
  Or it could be marketing from a timber company. 🤷‍♂️
  
  Or the entire timer industry.
  Or as some call it: Big Wood.
Wouldn't wood traveling at orbital speed still annihilate anything it hits?
- Apparently alumina from reentering satellites depletes the ozone layer.
I'm getting a strong Outer Wilds vibe from this title :)
- @gaael hey cool, hadn't seen that game!
  OPs article reminds me of the original draft for Alien 3 which was apparently set on a monastery planet made out of wood.
  
  It was my favorite game of 2023 :)
  If you intend to pick it up, don't read/watch anything about it, the best part of the game is discovering the mechanisms and universe as you go ;)
  Didn't know that about Alien 3, TIL :)
This doesn't seem to be space junk type pollution which is what space pollution is usually talking about. I guess this would be too minimize upper atmosphere metallic particles over the ocean? I haven't heard of that being an issue, but maybe if there were many times more satellites than there are today it would become an issue?
- Yeah, this is to reduce atmospheric pollution when satellites deorbit, which is a separate problem from ensuring satellites deorbit in the first place. I hadn't heard that being an issue, but can see how it could be once the first generation of megaconstellation satellites (Starlink, Kuiper, and Guowang) reach the end of their life.
  Incidentally Japan + Rocket Lab just launched a spacecraft to collect data for future orbital rendezvous and deorbit missions.
  
  Looks like the research into upper atmosphere metallic contamination hasn't been studied much yet, they just know it's becoming more prevalent, but don't know that problems that creates yet. https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2313374120
I'm a simple man. If I see a space cube, I think borg!

22 comments