Biofore-Magazine-2021

By Laura Iisalo Illustration Arctic Astronautics

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TECH HUB

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Not content with being a global company, UPM is now reaching for the stars.

The man behind the project is Jari Mäkinen , one of the three founders of Arctic Astronautics, a company known for its innovativemethods of popularising space and science. Their award-winning creation Kitsat, a fully functional satellite that can be self-assembled, is already used by science centres, schools, research labo ratories, companies and hobbyists around the world. While Mäkinen had thought about us ing plywood in a satellite for a long time, recent Japanese research into the feasi bility of wooden satellites convinced him that his idea was sound. “At first it was just a fun idea, but it soon became clear that it was doable. We al ready had the Kitsat, a real satellite made with inexpensive parts, and it was an easy task to upgrade it to a space-worthy satellite bus. We had already been test ing plywood and knew that we could quickly create a structure perfect for a material-sciencemission,” he explains. Old doesn’t mean old-fashioned

Ply me to the moon

Plywood is a natural composite material, and it has been used in the aviation in dustry for a long time. But little research had been done on how it would behave in space. This is why Mäkinen and his team turned to UPM Plywood, which has a lot of experience working with thematerial. “We know a lot about wood, and we have the resources to turn wood into dif ferent types of commercial products,” says Ari Voutilainen , Director, Stakehold er Relations at UPM Plywood. “We have manufactured plywood for more than a hundred years but that doesn’t mean that it’s old-fashioned. On the contrary, with the right research and development, we can push the boundaries of what the ma terial is used for. In that sense, being able to build a wooden satellite is an exciting technological experiment. The data from the mission will be used for further product development.” The material chosen for the project is WISA-Birch ply wood, andUPM’s product development teamsworked hard to test differentmethods of gluing, surface treatments and super drying tomake it as robust as possible. Firemight come tomind as a possible hazardof usingwood, but as there isnooxygen inspace, except some sporadicatoms, this is not an issue. In fact, quite the opposite – when the sat ellite suffers orbital decay and hits the Earth’s atmosphere it burns quickly and cleanly, leaving no space debris behind. The main problem in extreme space conditions is outgas sing, which can result in moisture and gases potentially ob

It may be yet another small step for mankind, but it is a giant leap for one of the most sustainable materials in existence. The upcoming launch of the WISAWoodsat will be the first time a wooden satellite goes into space, marking a milestone in space engineering.

S pace, the final frontier. In its quest to conquer it, mankindhas employed a variety of exoticmaterials to build fantastic new devices that can withstand its extreme stresses and temperature. However, its newest innovation promises to be the most uncon ventional yet. With the launch of the WISAWoodsat in 2022, the world’s first wooden satellite is set to break records. Supported by the European Space Agency (ESA), the ven ture is an attempt to see how well plywood can withstand the rigours of spaceflight. And true to form, the minimalistic 10x10x10 cmnanosatellite has been designed and built inFin land – a country known for utilising wood-based materials in new and exciting ways.