Satellites Made Of Wood For A Cleaner Atmosphere: A team of scientists from Japan is working towards developing the world’s first wood-based space satellite.
The initiative, undertaken by Japan’s Sumitomo Forestry company and Kyoto University, aims to combat the growing problem of space debris.
At present, the plan is said to be in the nascent stage, as several wooden materials are being tested by the research team to find the one most suitable for space missions.
As per reports, the team is also working towards developing wooden materials that are extremely resistant to temperature changes and sunlight.
After the selection of the wood, the materials will be tested under extreme conditions here on Earth.
In the subsequent stages, the engineering model will be developed, and then, work will begin on the final flight model.
If all goes out as planned, the two teams will launch the first satellite in 2023.
The wooden satellites are considered good alternatives to traditional satellites, as they can get burnt easily while re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, thus leaving no harmful junk behind.
According to Takao Doi, a Japanese astronaut and a professor at the Kyoto University, told the BBC that all types of the satellites that re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere gets burnt and release tiny alumina particles.
These particles are capable of staying in the upper atmosphere for several years.
Growing space debris
At present, satellites are being used for numerous applications like communication, television, navigation, disasters, and weather forecasting, among others.
According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), more than 6,000 satellites are currently orbiting the Earth.
The space junk problem was first observed in the 1960s, and it has taken a long time since for the world to come up with measures to get rid of it.
According to ESA’s statistical model, there are more than 130 million pieces of anthropogenic space debris—waste residue due to human activities—smaller than a millimetre around our planet.
The debris can travel at a speed of more than 22,300 mph and can impact other satellites.
There was a time when the pocket of space around Earth consisted of zero human-made objects.
But then, following the launch of Sputnik 1 in October 1957, everything changed. Now, we have hundreds of satellites in the near-Earth orbit, which remain active and continue to serve the world.
However, this space also hosts all the useless, defunct satellites which, as of now, are vastly outnumbering the operational objects.
Experts have warned that the number of space debris floating in space is going to exponentially increase in the upcoming years.
The latest annual report from the European Space Agency (ESA) shows that the amount of space junk has been relentlessly increasing, despite the fact that various steps have been taken to curb this waste in recent years.
Several space agencies, including NASA and ESA, are coming up with projects that could attempt to collect space debris in the future, with ESA planning to launch one such mission in 2025.
While these appear to be curative measures, the project undertaken by Japan, being a preventive measure, seems to be a step in the right direction.
