A Japanese company and Kyoto University are working on a novel concept—wooden satellites. On the inside, they’ll look much like the satellites we have now, but the early concepts show a wood-box exterior. Early reporting suggested that converting to wood could help with the growing space junk problem, but that’s likely not accurate. Instead, wood satellites could have other benefits.
Japan’s Wooden Satellites Won’t Solve Space Junk, but They’re Still Interesting