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Comment by jaysonelliot | Hacker News Reader

I'm confused by this statement in the article:

<< LignoSat is made of honoki, a kind of magnolia tree native to Japan, and has been made using a traditional Japanese technique without screws or glue. >>

From photos I've seen while searching for more information, it does appear that there's a wooden core structure that is joined without fasteners. But it's then given a metal exoskeleton and what certainly appears to be metal fasteners.

I'd like to understand whether the goal is to create satellites without metal, as the article seemed to imply.

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It's not, this is all internet click bait sensational stuff. Wood can be an effective composite and has been used in space vehicles for at least 40 years. First time I saw it used was old LV fairings. These days there are much better composites available so the use of wood is likely for non-technical reasons.

This is meant to show that the housing can be made of wood, but the antennae and electronics still require mounting points via metal or plastic fasteners. The article gives a few reasons why this might be valuable, eg fewer toxins released during burnup, but I see this as an experiment in alternative manufacturing techniques, to see what we might be missing when we assume things like this need to be made out of metal and bolts.

>but I see this as an experiment in alternative manufacturing techniques, to see what we might be missing when we assume things like this need to be made out of metal and bolts.

That's an optimistic view, I suspect it's just done to get people talking about it and to contrast the traditional joinery against the technology. There isn't likely to be any criteria by which wood is the best material to use for something like this.

Not just mounting points but a common ground.

i think one goal is to minimize space debris. when metal debris reenters earths atmosphere it evaporates and the metal vapor do bad things. wood is just burning to co2.

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