Cutting-edge technology is getting back nature. A company has tested a new satellite that is predominantly made plywood. The satellite is called Woodsat. It is the brainchild engineer Jari Makinen, co-founder a Finnish company called Arctic Astronautics. It is just 10cm cubed size. He has already successfully tested his DIY, but high-tech, device the stratosphere. He attached it a weather balloon, which took it an altitude of 30km above Earth - just the endless expanse of space itself. The balloon exploded (as planned) and Woodsat safely parachuted back Earth. Mr Makinen happily reported that all communications equipment survived the harsh conditions.
Makinen plans to launch Woodsat space later this year. He said it was the realisation a dream. He started a company to produce fully functional wooden replicas orbit-ready miniature satellites called CubeSats. These are used space research, education and hobby purposes. Makinen explained: "I've always enjoyed making model planes that involve a lot wooden parts. Having worked the space education field, this got me wondering why we don't fly any wooden materials space." He came with the idea for Woodsat in 2017 and "the project just snowballed". He said: "We found commercial backing, and secured a berth an Electron launcher Rocket Lab in New Zealand."
