World´s first wooden satellite built by Japan researchers

TOKYO: 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.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.