> According to the BBC and other coverage, the partnership is between Kyoto University and a company called Sumitomo Forestry. But neither the university nor the company has any information on the project available on the English-language versions of their websites.
There may not be English press releases, but Sumitomo Forestry released a press release in Japanese [1], and Google Translate works pretty well on it.
Additionally, there's an English version of the Japanese news coverage [3].
The main points I've seen when looking through these resources are:
- Wood is a renewable resource, unlike all these metals we keep burning in the atmosphere
- Electromagnetic waves are not blocked by wood. Because of this, if the proof of concept works out, astronauts will be able to keep all their communication equipment, like antennas, on the inside of the ship.
- When wood burns it decomposes into gases you would already expect to find in the atmosphere.
- The goal is to find something to increase the price of wood. Basically, this is a fishing expedition.
- Even if this doesn't work out, the research might lead to some new applications for wood.
- The project name is LignoStella and the satellite will be called LignoSat.
My backpack uses birch wood for its internal suspension system. The designers found that, more than just being green, it was as performant as synthetics and just as economical. Wood is a resource to rival modern materials science, or be used in conjunction with.
It’s been very interesting to me how recently there’s been a lot of focus on green alternatives to materials that are carbon based.
One solar race car team I follow has just announced that their new car will feature natural flax composites in non-structural areas of their car as an alternative to carbon/fibreglass.
There may not be English press releases, but Sumitomo Forestry released a press release in Japanese [1], and Google Translate works pretty well on it.
Additionally, there's an English version of the Japanese news coverage [3].
The main points I've seen when looking through these resources are:
- Wood is a renewable resource, unlike all these metals we keep burning in the atmosphere
- Electromagnetic waves are not blocked by wood. Because of this, if the proof of concept works out, astronauts will be able to keep all their communication equipment, like antennas, on the inside of the ship.
- When wood burns it decomposes into gases you would already expect to find in the atmosphere.
- The goal is to find something to increase the price of wood. Basically, this is a fishing expedition.
- Even if this doesn't work out, the research might lead to some new applications for wood.
- The project name is LignoStella and the satellite will be called LignoSat.
[1] https://sfc.jp/information/news/2020/2020-12-23.html
[2] https://univ-journal.jp/74704/?show_more=1
[3] https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Science/World-s-first-woode...