World's first wooden satellite built by Japan researchers
The Hindu
The world’s first wooden satellite has been built by Japanese researchers who said their tiny cuboid craft will be blasted off on a SpaceX rocket
The world's first wooden satellite has been built by Japanese researchers who said their tiny cuboid craft will be blasted off on a SpaceX rocket in September.
Each side of the experimental satellite developed by scientists at Kyoto University and logging company Sumitomo Forestry measures just 10 centimetres (four inches).
The creators expect the wooden material will burn up completely when the device re-enters the atmosphere -- potentially providing a way to avoid the generation of metal particles when a retired satellite returns to Earth.
These metal particles could have a negative impact on the environment and telecommunications, the developers said as they announced the satellite's completion on Tuesday.
"Satellites that are not made of metal should become mainstream," Takao Doi, an astronaut and special professor at Kyoto University, told a press conference.
The developers plan to hand the satellite, made from magnolia wood and named LignoSat, to space agency JAXA next week.
It will be sent into space on a SpaceX rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in September, bound for the International Space Station (ISS), they said.
NASA swaps astronaut capsule for ISS flight, moving up return for Starliner crew, impacting private missions and political drama.
In a study published in the journal Mammalian Biology on December 23, 2024, researchers compared the calls of Asian elephants based on their age, sex, and behaviour. They found the duration of trumpets remained fairly consistent across all age classes for both male and female Asian elephants but roars and roar-rumbles got longer with age.
Discover the rise of pickleball among tennis players, its accessibility, affordability, and potential for growth in the sports industry in Chennai
Discover why Hawaii is known as the "rainbow capital of the world" with frequent sightings and cultural significance.
The Simple One e-scooter is a refined, fun-to-ride, and practical e-scooter that ticks most of the right boxes
10 sought-after books for design lovers. Geoffrey Bawa to Carlo Scarpa and more, these titles are collector’s items that also make for interesting gifts.
SHRC rules fitness coaching fell under scheduled employment and minimum wage, and workplace protections should apply
30-year-old male with rare Bombay blood group receives successful kidney transplant using innovative cross-blood matching technique.
The STS-63 mission, more popularly dubbed as the near-Mir mission, was a successful mission that spanned from February 3-11, 1995. A mission that served as a dress rehearsal for later missions that would rendezvous and dock with Mir, STS-63 reeled off a number of firsts. A.S.Ganesh tries and lists them out for you…
India's first heart failure registry reveals younger patients, high mortality rates, and varying causes of heart failure.
Kiran G.K., a passionate collector, who has amassed an enviable fleet of 40 motorbikes
ISRO Chairman discusses successful CE20 cryogenic engine test and Space Docking Experiment at Aero India International Seminar 2025.
Saurabh Bothra, the yoga guru behind Habuild, builds a community of women through daily online classes and empathy.