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 centimeters (four inches).
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.
The developers plan to hand the satellite, made from magnolia wood and named LignoSat, to space agency JAXA next week.
It will be sent into space on a SpaceX rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in September, bound for the International Space Station (ISS), they said.
From there, the satellite will be released from the Japanese ISS experiment module to test its strength and durability.
“Data will be sent from the satellite to researchers who can check for signs of strain and whether the satellite can withstand huge changes in temperature,” a Sumitomo Forestry spokeswoman told AFP on Wednesday.
Also on Tuesday, a rocket carrying a separate sophisticated satellite — a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and JAXA — blasted off from California on a mission to investigate what role clouds could play in the fight against climate change.
The EarthCARE satellite will orbit nearly 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Earth for three years.
India’s weather department issued a red alert for several parts of the country’s northwest on Wednesday, warning of a severe heat wave a day after parts of the capital Delhi recorded their highest temperature ever at almost 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit).
A red alert implies a “very high likelihood” of people developing “heat illness and heat stroke”, and calls for “extreme care” for vulnerable people, according to the India Meteorological Department.
India has been grappling with unusually high temperatures this summer, and the weather department has said “heat wave to severe heat wave” conditions are likely to continue in several parts, including the capital, through Wednesday.
India declares a heat wave when the maximum temperature of a region is 4.5 C to 6.4 C higher than usual, while a severe heat wave is declared when the maximum temperature is 6.5 C higher than normal or more.
Local weather stations in Delhi’s Mungeshpur and Narela neighborhoods recorded a temperature of 49.9 degrees Celsius on Tuesday – an all time record for the city and 9 C above normal.
Delhi’s local government also restricted the supply of water because of the heat. It said water levels in the Yamuna River, the main source, were low.
The city does not have uninterrupted water supply at any time, but the government said neighborhoods which received water for some hours two times a day would be subject to further restrictions.
“I appeal to all the residents that whether there is a water problem in your area or not, please use water very carefully,” the local government’s Water Minister Atishi, who used only one name, said on Tuesday.
Billions of people across Asia, including India’s neighbor Pakistan, have been experiencing a hotter summer this year – a trend international scientists say has been worsened by human-driven climate change.
Three more deaths were attributed to heat stroke on Tuesday in Jaipur in Rajasthan state, local media reported, taking the city’s toll to four and that of the state to at least 13.
Rising temperatures also prompted India’s polling body to make additional arrangements when Delhi voted in the national elections last week, including deployment of paramedics at polling stations, which were also equipped with mist machines, shaded waiting areas, and cold water dispensers.
The elections conclude on June 1 with counting set to take place on June 4.
