Guardian- Japan to launch world’s first wooden satellite to combat space pollution
The LignoSat probe has been built of magnolia wood, which, in experiments carried out on the International Space Station (ISS), was found to be particularly stable and resistant to cracking. Now plans are being finalised for it to be launched on a US rocket this summer.
The hubris of Human beings continues to grow. The Japanese got over that for awhile after WW2.
It doesn’t take much to see that the worries of a teenage girl from Sweden amounts to much more than a hill of beans in this crazy world.
Re-entry should be colourful.
Will it be a one holer or a two holer?
Pssst….just ignore the Methane fuel used to get it up there.
Sincerely,
Sadie the Cow who ate at Taco Bell last night
How do you know that the rocket uses methane?
Worse.
Article states either Cygnus Antares or SpaceX falcon9.
Both use lox/RP1 in the booster.
Cygnus stage uses hypergolic UDMH/nitric acid.
Space X has announced that all their next generation of rockets will be tuned to methane fuel.
Currently, they’re using kerosene.
Either way they’re fossil fueled. Like buying a tesla then hauling it around on a diesel powered flatbed.
Comparing this to the EV boondoggle? I don’t get it. Rockets use fuel. Who cares?
Testing wood out in space is a good idea, not because of “pollution” but because of its structural qualities.
The guardian article was highlighting the environmental aspect, so I stand by my tesla analogy.
Wood has been used in aerospace since the start. Abandoned because of weight and inconsistency of a natural product.
How will this combat space pollution?
A piece of wood at orbital speeds is pretty much as bad as a piece of metal.
Also, organic materials are more prone to UV, so this thing could fall apart all by itself, given time.
The Guardian, as usual, is full of it.
That being said, testing wood out in space is a good idea, maybe protect it from UV with some vapor-deposited aluminium.
See, it’s biodegradable! It will disintegrate into a thousand smaller pieces!
Which at high speeds become large cloud of projectiles instead of one larger one.
I once watched one of those home repair guys on TV say:
“There are two types of wood. Wood that is warped, and wood that will warp.”
Well of course! But you want warp speed, don’t you?
LOL!
Ooh! Talk about a warped sense of humour!
Going from childhood memories, a cow can jump over the moon, so.
What’s it like getting a sliver at 17,000 mph?
Next up” Steam Punk Shuttle”
That would be pretty effin cool.
Them japs are pretty good with wood, hundreds of years of bansai, selective breeding, etc.
I want to know if the rocket going to be wood fired?
Carbon neutral and all that.
Somehow I don’t think the guys and gals who launched Voyager I and II out of the solar system expected that 50 years later their successors would be building spacecraft out of wood.
Though I suppose it facilitates construction if you don’t have to mess about with friction stir welding and can just use some Lepage’s and a brad nailer.
And kudos to Jamie above for beating me to the warp speed line.
I heard part of a radio play years ago… An eldster was relating this tale to a younger couple. “Our ancestors once built A spaceship made entirely out of wood! It had a wooden hull and wooden fins and a wooden floor! There was only one problem…”!
“What was that”?
“It wouldn’t work…”!!!
Space…
Right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBv3_0j0y_4
Back around 2008 evolution began running in reverse. Surely PETA and the “Save the termites” movement block the launch.
Space! The final veneer!