Building a Satellite out of Wood? Use Magnolia

Illustration of a wooden satellite. Credit: MidJourney
Illustration of a wooden satellite. Credit: MidJourney

Typically when you think of a satellite, you think of a metal box with electronic components inside it. But that is simply because most satellites have been made that way throughout history. There is nothing against using other materials to build satellites. Now, a team of researchers from Japan has completed testing on another type of material that could eventually be used on an actual satellite – magnolia wood.

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Japan to Launch ‘Wooden Satellite’ in 2023

woodsat

What a proposed wooden satellite could (and could not) accomplish.

A strange satellite proposal made at the end of 2020 by a Japanese company had many space pundits scratching their heads into 2021.

The proposal came out of Kyoto University in partnership with Sumitomo Forestry in Japan, though most of the information on the project comes from a BBC post quoting Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut and Kyoto University professor Takao Doi, who flew aboard the U.S. space shuttle on missions STS-87 and STS-123 to the International Space Station. STS-123 delivered and installed JAXA’s Kib? module in 2008.

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