Wood comes in a pretty wide array of forms and with a wide array of mechanical properties. Obeche, Bamboo, Balsa, Ebony and Oak are all quite different from one another.
And people have been making dwellings, boats, carts and aeroplanes from wood for millennia all of which have been shown to cope with a variety of vibration, friction, humidity, temperature, stress and strain.
I say, bring it!
Quite obviously the benefits of this technology can only be gathered by deploying the satellites with one of these.
Wood, the original carbon fiber…
If the satellite weighs the same as a duck, then BURN IT!
I don’t know if it was edited later, but the Ars article is correct. Do these materials exist in quantities big enough to matter? Compared to all the stuff we burn on the ground? There are still circuit boards and internal structures and metal hardware inside these satellites, plus the large, non-wood boosters that put them in orbit.
The ars article even says it’s worth doing at the end, just not deserving of much attention given the scale of the space junk problem.
You’re still using wood for your satellites? I guess that’s okay if you’re into the whole bougie greenwashing thing. Myself, I’m sort of into aluminum these days. You’ve probably never heard of it.
Instead of pressure treated wood use vacuum treated?
transparent aluminum ?? well , almost !
wood does have an aesthetic all it’s own , though , eh ?
and , why not both ?? with gold plated usb3 cables for superiour audio also , of course
Hey now. I poke fun at hipsters, but comparing them to audiophiles is over the line.
This satellite may be the first wooden satellite designed to orbit Earth, but it isn’t the first object made from wood to visit space. NASA’s Ranger Program, which was run by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, from 1961 to 1965, broke that barrier first.
For the Ranger 3, 4 and 5 missions, engineers at JPL constructed an impact limiter—a 25-inch-wide globe made from balsawood—designed to protect lunar instruments. According to Scientific American, the engineers placed a seismometer and transmitter in the center of each of the hollowed globes and then filled them with liquid, which would hypothetically act as a stabilizer when the balsawood impactors crash-landed on the moon.
[From the article in Popular Mechanics, see link below]
Intriguing concept.
First of all it highlights that in 60+ years of sending satellites up, there has been little research on what effect burning them at reentry has on the composition and chemistry of the atmosphere. Might be close to nothing, might influence local weather systems, might be a factor in global warming - we simply don’t know it yet.
We have entered the age of (relatively) cheap, mass-produced, disposable satellites. Making and using them in ways that have as little negative impact as possible is a good idea.
And sometimes you just have to try out stuff.
While having less metal satellites burning up in the atmosphere is a nice idea, it’s missing the point a bit. Something like 40 tonnes per day of asteroids are burning up in the atmosphere, and it’ll be a while before humans can launch enough satellites to even come close to that.
I was thinking this instead.
After reading this, I don’t understand why puns are not more poplar.
I try them out on my daughter. I once told her 10 puns to see if any would provoke a smile.
But no pun in ten did.
The problem arises from the choice of launch systems. Rockets need fuel and produce pollution. Just use big fucking wood catapults to twirl wood satellites into LEOs. Simple.
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