Wooden Satellite Launched for the First Time in the World...Expectations to Solve Space Waste

[Anchor]
The world's first wooden satellite has been launched.

Although it is still in the testing stage, wooden satellites are expected to burn when re-entering Earth, helping solve the space waste problem.

This is reporter Lee Sung-kyu.

[Reporter]
Kennedy Space Center, Florida, United StatesRockets in
SpaceX fire.

The rocket, which carried the solar observation telescope Codex, also carried a special satellite.

It is a palm-sized satellite made of wood and will stay for about six months at 400km above the earth.

Researchers at Kyoto University in Japan have built a satellite based on Honoki wood, which is traditionally used as a sheath for Japanese knives.

The researchers plan to find out whether the wood material can adapt to extreme space environments from minus 100 degrees Celsius to 100 degrees Celsius.

It also looks at how much wood materials can reduce space radiation damage from electronic components such as semiconductors.

Wooden satellites are also expected to be useful for space junk and environmental problems.

After completing the mission, the satellite re-enters the Earth's atmosphere to avoid being left as space junk.

Existing metal satellites make aluminum oxide in this process, but wooden satellites burn up and disappear.

[Lee Chang-jin / Specialist of the Korea Aerospace Technology Promotion Association: Al₂O ₃ (aluminum oxide) is a carcinogen. When it's produced a lot, gasified, and becomes particulate, it can cause environmental or health problems.]

[Reporter]
the world's first wooden satellite in space
The durability of the
tree material in harsh space environments is expected to be a gauge for practical use in the future.

I'm Lee Sung Kyu of YTN Science.