Satellites encased in wood are in the works
economist.com42 points by andsoitis 3 days ago
42 points by andsoitis 3 days ago
I could have sworn I remember hearing about some historical satellites involving wood in some way and I guess it was this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanhui_Shi_Weixing
>The successful recovery of an FSW-0 recoverable satellite in 1974 established China as the third nation to launch and recover a satellite
>A novel feature of the spacecraft's re-entry module was the use of impregnated oak, a natural material, as the ablative material for its heat shield.
Edit: There's more! As usual, Scott Manley has it covered https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtxYP9fLMmk
Related (same company) on this recycled post from econo:
Wooden satellite heads to space in Mars exploration test (105 points, 2024, 71 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42051687
Japan to launch first wooden satellite to combat space pollution (55 points, 2024, 17 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39414641
Related - different company:
Woodsat: A Space Agency Will Launch a Tiny, Wooden Satellite (105 points, 2021, 18 comments)https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27549097
Interesting… apparently the advantages are:
* cheaper material
* naturally dampens vibrations -> can potentially help sensitive instruments
* naturally insulates heat better -> saves power on heating
* doesn't block radio frequencies -> lower drag in low orbits -> 50% longer orbital time
* fully burns up on re-entryNext, we'll be building Treeships.
Some Silicon Valley startup will probably come up with the innovative idea of building ships from wood and propelling them with wind power. As long as they are adding AI it will probably be worth a few billion investment .
Refining Idea 3 to sound like a seasoned HN user: "Curious how they handle the moisture content and outgassing in a vacuum. Wood needs to be extremely dry and stable to avoid warping, but the payoff for reducing metallic debris during re-entry would be huge. " Refining Idea 2 (More conversational): "Reminds me of the LignoSat project from Kyoto University using magnolia. Does the article mention what specific type of wood they're using? I recall magnolia being surprisingly durable against temperature swings in the ISS experiments.
may be a material of future - "compressed" wood stronger and lighter than steel https://www.fastcompany.com/91334748/superwood-stronger-than...
"has a 50% greater tensile strength than steel and a strength-to-weight ratio that’s 10 times better. "
what about bamboo? could that be "compressed" and used? bc that stuff grows like crazy and is easy to harvest.
Uh...nothing new here....been done many, many years ago because...easy way to stealth a satellite...