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New Zealand to Launch World's First Wooden Satellite

Date - 15th Jun 2021

The European Space Agency (ESA) will launch the world's first wooden satellite called WISA Woodsat into Earth orbit by the end of 2021. WISA Woodsat will be launched to test the applicability of wood materials such as plywood in spacecraft structures. The mission will expose wooden materials to extreme space conditions such as heat, cold, vacuum, and radiation. The wooden satellite will be launched into space by the end of 2021 using the Rocket Lab Electron rocket. It will be launched from a launch facility on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. The satellite was designed and built-in Finland.

Satellite features

• The satellite will be located at an altitude of about 500-600 km in a polar sun-synchronous orbit. It is a 10x10x10 cm nanosatellite that was built from standard boxes and plywood surface panels commonly found in hardware stores and used to make furniture.
• The wood is placed in a thermal vacuum chamber to keep it dry in space. It was coated with a thin layer of aluminum oxide to minimize the evaporation of wood and protect it from the erosive effects of atomic oxygen.
• The non-wood outer parts of the satellite are angled aluminum rails that will be used to deploy it in space, and a metal selfie stick.

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