Japan wants to prevent space garbage with its wooden satellites.
Japan has rolled up its sleeves to produce the world’s first wooden satellites that will burn when they return to Earth without emitting harmful substances into the atmosphere to reduce space litter.
Sumitomo Forestry, a woodworking company based in Japan, announced that they have started to research on a wood material ideal for space and will conduct research jointly with Kyoto University. Saying that they will test the material in extreme conditions on earth, the company shares that the satellite may be ready by 2023.
Sumitomo Forestry and Kyoto University underline that the space litter problem will eventually affect the Earth’s environment. Wooden satellites, on the other hand, will be able to make a significant contribution to the environment by burning at the entrance without debris. Space debris, also referred to as space pollution, consists of man-made objects such as spacecraft fragments, tiny paint spots from a spacecraft, rocket fragments, satellites that are no longer working, or explosions of orbiting objects in space. It is also pointed out by NASA that these are at high speed.
