https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanhui_Shi_Weixing
>The successful recovery of an FSW-0 recoverable satellite in 1974 established China as the third nation to launch and recover a satellite
>A novel feature of the spacecraft's re-entry module was the use of impregnated oak, a natural material, as the ablative material for its heat shield.
Edit: There's more! As usual, Scott Manley has it covered https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtxYP9fLMmk
* have mercy on me dang
Not during reentry it’s not.
That’s what I took from GP saying “I can recommend BPS Space video about ablation” followed by their opinion of the video.
I’m curious, what did you take from them saying “video about ablation” that made you think the video was about ‘wood in satellites’? How does one get from A to B here?
I want to be perfectly clear that I understand the thread we’re in right now is about wood and satellites. I want to TRY to understand how you read their comment so I can understand the confusion.
A: i'm really interested in things that are red. here's one: firetrucks.
B: here's a neat thing which is green: unripe tomatoes.
A: um, that's not red.
C (you): wow why would you possibly think that the thing was red? they explicitly stated it was green. not sure what comment you read.
The whole thread is about space. The comment they replied to both shared a YouTube video and discussed ablations, so they brought a contribution to the thread: Here’s this interesting video from a space YouTuber in case anybody is curious about ablative materials in rocketry.
What did you bring to the conversation by remarking that the video that they shared was not about wood in satellites? They’d already said so; it was a Captain Obvious level response.
I have at least brought curiosity as to why you felt that was a meaningful contribution and how you could have arrived at such a dismissive statement from a place of curiosity.
I take it that despite being in a thread about wood being used as an ablative material for satellites, you have no curiosity about ablative materials in the devices that transport said satellites?
Did you think that they misunderstood what thread they were in? Their comment was relevant and welcome. Frankly, yours was against HN guidelines, and I was trying to politely draw attention to that fact by getting you to analyze your conclusion.
"has a 50% greater tensile strength than steel and a strength-to-weight ratio that’s 10 times better. "
i'm no expert at this stuff, but i used to live in a home that had a bamboo garden maintained by a housemate. that stuff was so strong, i used it to make a box lol
That’s not to say it’s not strong enough necessarily, but building with bamboo requires different construction techniques and people are still working on validating its safety and updating building codes, which takes decades.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InventWood
> In 2018, [Liangbing] Hu's laboratory reported that partially removing lignin from natural wood and then compressing the remaining cellulose under heat produced a material roughly three times denser than the original timber and an order of magnitude stronger in bending and tension.[2] The material was commercially named Superwood.
> [2]: https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fnature25476 | https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25476
* cheaper material
* naturally dampens vibrations -> can potentially help sensitive instruments
* naturally insulates heat better -> saves power on heating
* doesn't block radio frequencies -> lower drag in low orbits -> 50% longer orbital time
* fully burns up on re-entryConditions in space are extreme but at least they are stable and known so i'd bet we would know how to treat the wood for this environment.
My first assumption when thinking about wood is the one that you are having. But my second assumption would be that they've probably thought about the same things.
Common aluminium and titanium alloys are dirt cheap. Doubly so in aerospace context.
You're right though. I really doubt the cost of the aluminium is relevant to any satellite. It costs over 10k to launch the smallest cubesat.
There are some nice pics here: https://kitsat.fi/2022-04_one-year-after-making-our-project-...
Sadly, I don't think it was ever launched.
Hyperion is a great read for anyone looking for their next scifi book BTW. :)
https://metropolisjapan.com/why-wooden-architecture-is-makin...
That said, wood can be treated to remove quite a lot of stuff, leaving behind a strong porous structure that can be filled with various things to tweak its properties.
(https://amorimcorksolutions.com/en-us/our-brands/amorim-tps/)
gnabgib•1w ago
Related (same company) on this recycled post from econo:
Wooden satellite heads to space in Mars exploration test (105 points, 2024, 71 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42051687
Japan to launch first wooden satellite to combat space pollution (55 points, 2024, 17 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39414641
Related - different company:
Woodsat: A Space Agency Will Launch a Tiny, Wooden Satellite (105 points, 2021, 18 comments)https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27549097