LignoSat2, the first wooden artificial satellite developed by Kyoto University’s Spaţiu Wood Laboratory is scheduled to be jointly launched by JAXA și NASA this year will have outside structure made of Magnolia wood.
Va fi un satelit de dimensiuni mici (nanosat).
Universitatea din Kyoto Spaţiu Wood Laboratory has chosen Magnolia for its relatively high workability, dimensional stability, and overall strength.
The idea is to demonstrate that the wood can be used in spaţiu.
Earlier, a project led by Kyoto University tested and confirmed the high wood durability of spaţiu wood at the International Spaţiu Station (ISS). The experiment showed minimal deterioration and good stability of the samples selected for the wooden artificial satellite.
The research group conducted a preliminary inspection involving strength tests and elemental and crystal structural analyses after astronaut Koichi Wakata returned the wood sample to the Earth.The tests confirmed no decomposition or deformations, such as cracking, warping, peeling, or surface damage despite the extreme environment of outer spaţiu involving significant temperature changes and exposure to intense cosmic rays and dangerous solar particles for ten months. The three wood specimens showed no deformation after spaţiu exposure.The experiment results also confirmed no mass change in each wood specimen before and after spaţiu exposure. Based on these results, the research group decided to use Magnolia wood.
LignoStella Spaţiu Wood Project was jointly launched by Kyoto University and Sumitomo Forestry in April 2020. The spaţiu exposure tests were conducted for over 240 days in 2022 on the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo of the ISS.
Use of wood in spaţiu is more sustainable. When dropped from orbită into the upper atmosphere, it degrades completely without any harmful byproducts.
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Referinte:
- Universitatea din Kyoto. Știri de cercetare – Eșantionare pentru sustenabilitate în spațiul cosmic. Publicat 25 ianuarie 2024. Disponibil la https://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/research-news/2024-01-25-0
- Universitatea din Kyoto. Știri de cercetare – Spațiul: frontiera de lemn. Universitatea Kyoto va testa șipci de lemn la bordul platformei Kibo din Japonia de pe ISS. Publicat 31 august 2021. Disponibil la https://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/research-news/2021-08-31
- Baza de date NanoSats. LignoSat. https://www.nanosats.eu/sat/lignosat
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