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World’s First Wooden Satellite Set To Launch – Can Plywood Survive in Space? - SciTechDaily

World’s First Wooden Satellite Set To Launch – Can Plywood Survive in Space? - SciTechDaily

World’s First Wooden Satellite Set To Launch – Can Plywood Survive in Space? - SciTechDaily
Jun 16, 2021 1 min, 34 secs

By European Space Agency (ESA).

The world’s first wooden satellite is on the way, in the shape of the Finnish WISA Woodsat.

The world’s first wooden satellite is on the way, in the shape of the Finnish WISA Woodsat.

Having worked in the space education field, this got me wondering; why don’t we fly any wooden materials in space.

“So I had the idea first of all to fly a wooden satellite up to the stratosphere, aboard a weather balloon.

Revealing the WISA Woodsat design.

This should minimize any unwanted vapors from the wood, known as ‘outgassing’ in the space field, while also protecting against the erosive effects of atomic oxygen.

This highly reactive oxygen variant is found at the fringes of the atmosphere – the result of standard oxygen molecules being broken apart by powerful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun – and was first discovered when it ate away thermal blankets on early Space Shuttle flights.

Pre-flight testing suggests the satellite, which will orbit at around 500-600 km altitude in a roughly polar Sun-synchronous orbit, should survive its atomic oxygen exposure.

Designing and manufacturing of the camera boom proved an interesting exercise: the structure needs to be small as it can be within the tiny satellite for launch, then extend out as far as possible when in space.

LEOX generates atomic oxygen at energy levels that are equivalent to orbital speed – 7.8 km/s – to simulate the space environment as closely as possible.

It then dissociates to form a highly energetic beam of atomic oxygen

The new facility is housed in the Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory, one of a suite of labs at ESA’s technical center in the Netherlands, devoted to simulating every aspect of the space environment

“For Huld the Woodsat project has already proved an important reference point for entering other space mechanics projects, too.”

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