World's 1st wooden satellite arrives at ISS for key orbital test

[Admin]

LignoSat could help change the way we build satellites.

World's 1st wooden satellite arrives at ISS for key orbital test : Read more

 

[ChrisA]

I don't think this is the fist use of wood in space. In the 1970s and 1980s there were Chinese satellites that use an oak heat shield. The wood would burn and fall away as the spacecraft reentered the atmosphere.

Google will find them, one is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanhui_Shi_Weixing

My question is what fraction of the satellite's mass is replaced with wood. Not "what fraction of this spacecraft is made of wood, but how much aluminum is lost and replaced with wood.

Are the fuel tanks made of wood? There are obviously many parts that can not be made with wood.

Finally, this may work out well because, like the Chinese satellites possibly the wood acts as a heat shield and allows the satellite to mostly service reentry and the internal parts do not completely disintegrate and fall into the ocean. Falling into the ocean is likely better than vaporizing in the air.

 

[bolide]

This is an excellent idea. Great strength-to-weight, lower cost, less pollution.

We tend to become so enamored of our latest technology that we don't see its disadvantages, in the glare of its novel capacities. But sometimes we can step back and see that the older tech works just as well, without the new problems.

 

[Classical Motion]

Not only that, if it ever got out of our system and was found, no one would have a clue as to what the material was. An unknown strange non metal material.

The Neighbors might come from miles around to take a look at it.

 

[The True Nolan]

I don't think this is the fist use of wood in space. In the 1970s and 1980s there were Chinese satellites that use an oak heat shield. The wood would burn and fall away as the spacecraft reentered the atmosphere.

Google will find them, one is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanhui_Shi_Weixing

My question is what fraction of the satellite's mass is replaced with wood. Not "what fraction of this spacecraft is made of wood, but how much aluminum is lost and replaced with wood.

Are the fuel tanks made of wood? There are obviously many parts that can not be made with wood.

Finally, this may work out well because, like the Chinese satellites possibly the wood acts as a heat shield and allows the satellite to mostly service reentry and the internal parts do not completely disintegrate and fall into the ocean. Falling into the ocean is likely better than vaporizing in the air.

The Ranger 4 spacecraft became the first US craft to impact on another celestial body, the Moon, on April 26, 1962, and it was made partly of balsa wood. Just before impact, the main spacecraft released a small spherical lander containing a seismograph. Technology at the time was not good enough to perform a soft landing, but the package had a small rocket engine to decelerate it to (hopefully!) about 60 MPH. The seismometer itself was contained in a sphere which was surrounded by an outer shell of balsa wood. Between the two parts was a liquid. The plan was to impact the Moon slow enough to survive, with the balsa absorbing most of the impact. After the sphere stopped rolling, the bottom-heavy seismograph would rotate in the liquid to become upright. A little bullet (I think it might have been a regular .22 caliber) would automatically fire through the wood, allowing the liquid to drain out and thus leaving an upright seismometer able to sense lunar vibrations. While the package did successfully impact, it did so just beyond the limb of the visible lunar surface preventing any data reception.

 

[billslugg]

I remember the Ranger images where the last one just before impact was only partially sent, half the picture was noise.