The Times view on wooden satellites: Magnolias in Space

The new satellite building materials

KYOTO UNIVERSITY

There is something almost comical in the notion of a satellite made of wood. The idea that botanical material could stand up to the rigours of whirling around the earth, its innards filled with high-tech communications or scientific instruments, seems preposterous.

Yet Japan has built, tested and is about to launch a satellite, made of magnolia wood and no larger than a kitchen mug, which its scientists claim will not only be well suited to life in space but will prove an ingenious way to save the upper stratosphere. Burning up in a quick bonfire as it falls to earth at the end of its life, it will not add to the huge collection of dead satellites and other space debris that is becoming a