It's still a useful material for some applications. The fiber is natural (linen, cotton, etc) making the material less abrasive. IIRC, it's also used in ablative heat shields.
Posted on 06/17/2024 5:55:28 AM PDT by Red Badger
Really????
OK, thanks...I remember looking there and thinking “wood in a spacecraft”!!!! LOL
“Surprisingly, wood has proven to be an eco-friendly choice for space instruments. Its easy combustibility makes it a more environmentally friendly alternative to metal satellites, offering a promising step towards sustainable space exploration.”
I agree that wood will burn up in the atmosphere, but most people don’t know that wood is an EXCELLENT fire block and is often used for that role, at least based on my extensive experience in construction.
Their Sustainability is wasting millions of gallons of water washing garbage so they can call it recycling
I can’t wait for the first sandstone satellite.
It's still a useful material for some applications. The fiber is natural (linen, cotton, etc) making the material less abrasive. IIRC, it's also used in ablative heat shields.
“Wooden satellites, however, immediately combust upon re-entry, becoming a small cloud of carbon dioxide and water vapor as the wood panels incinerate and burn, leaving no potentially harmful particulates behind.”
What? I thought carbon dioxide was the world’s most dangerous pollutant!
Phenolic resin was the polymer of choice for the early M-16’s furniture. It proved to be too brittle in combat and has since been replaced.
CC
Save a tree, build a wooden spaceship
Why not make them out of ceramic?..................
NASA has done extensive materials testing the easy and smart way, by getting boards covered with rectangles of different materials, dozens at a time, sending them into space for a while, then bringing them back for analysis.
Structural integrity; heat, cold, and radiation resistance; strength testing for tension, compression, and torsion; etc., etc.
Almost needless to say, very few materials came back unscathed. However, it would be very good science to do this test with all sorts of different woods.
Maybe we could make houses out of wood?/s
Maybe someone could beat these researchers about the head and shoulders with a wooden baseball bat?
“Let me show you how a Louisville Slugger works.”
Methinks sea water is the key to getting to the stars.
Okay throw in some wood, oil and rare earth elements...
G-d knows what He’s doing.
5.56mm
Now next make a ROCKET out of wood and do not use present day rocket fuel.
Ironwood is a good prospect. However there is such great diversity in woods that all sorts of things could be learned from exposure in space. Teak, bamboo, redwood, even pine and balsa might show interesting results.
If the sole purpose of the container is to hold the electronics together, the the lightest choice is preferable.
Shielding, when necessary, can be done with metal foils.
Heat sinks of components that get hot would still need to be metallic..................
Bakelite is still manufactured, and is light and durable..............
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite
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