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We may have wooden satellites in just a few years, according to an announcement made this month by Kyoto University and Sumitomo Forestry, organizations with combined roots stretching back 550 years.
Wood’s place in high technology has a long history. During World War II wooden boats were used for minesweepers, the Spruce Goose was designed to circumvent wartime material restrictions, and the De Havilland Mosquito, built of plywood in Britain, had a very weak radar section. During this century, a man in Bosnia even built a Volkswagen Beetle from oak.
The recently announced aerospace project, led by retired astronaut and engineer Professor Takao Doi, plans to launch satellites constructed from wood to reduce space debris and hazardous substances resulting from re-entry. We’re a little skeptical about the hazardous substances angle (and we’re not alone in this area), but certainly as a way to ensure full combustion on re-entry, wood is an interesting material. It also achieves an excellent strength to weight ratio and, as a renewable resource, is easy to find.
Professor Doi has been studying the use of wood in space for several years. In 2017, he started fundamental research on the use of wood in space (p. 16), where his team experimented with conifers (cedar and cypress) and hardwoods (satin wood, magnolia and zelkova) in vacuum environments. Based on their successes, they predicted the launch of wooden satellites in the mid-2020s (their announcement this month said 2023). Sumitomo engineers have not disclosed the type of wood that will ultimately be used on the satellite.
You may remember Astronaut Doi from an experience aboard the ISS where he successfully demonstrated piloting a boomerang in space (video below), and he also discovered two supernovae in his spare time. We wish him good luck.
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