ECONOMIST: A Japanese forestry firm wants to put wooden satellites into orbit
經濟學人：一家日本林業公司想將木製衛星送入軌道
In space, wood has advantages over artificial materials
在太空中，木材比人造材料有優勢
THE SPACE age was built on clever materials. The business ends of rocket engines are composed of Inconel, a family of heat-and-corrosion-resistant nickel-chromium alloys developed in the 1940s. The 「gold foil」 adorning many satellites is, in fact, a form of insulation made from layers of Kapton and metallised Mylar, a pair of artificial polymers from the 1950s and 1960s. SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft use a heat shield made of phenolic-impregnated carbon to protect astronauts during atmospheric re-entry.
太空時代是建立在聰明的材料上的。火箭發動機的商業終端由Inconel組成，Inconel是一種耐熱耐腐蝕的鎳鉻合金，開發於20世紀40年代。事實上，許多衛星上裝飾的「金箔」是一種絕緣形式，由Kapton層和金屬化聚酯薄膜(一對20世紀50年代和60年代的人造聚合物)製成。SpaceX的「龍」號太空飛行器使用酚醛浸漬碳製成的隔熱板在重返大氣層時保護太空人。
But it is not just humans in lab coats who can come up with whizzy substances. Sumitomo Forestry, a Japanese firm, and Kyoto University are pondering the idea of building satellites out of an advanced, high-performance composite made from cellulose and lignin, a pair of complex polymers which are strong in tension and compression respectively. This material is both cheap and abundant. It is self-assembling and requires only simple chemical inputs. Manufacture can be entirely automated, requiring no human oversight. Translated from chemist-speak, they want to make satellites out of wood.
但是不僅僅是穿著實驗服的人能想到神奇的物質。日本住友林業公司和京都大學正在考慮用一種先進的高性能複合材料製造衛星的想法，這種複合材料由纖維素和木質素製成，這兩種複合聚合物分別具有很強的張力和壓縮力。這種材料既便宜又豐富。它是自組裝的，只需要簡單的化學輸入。製造可以完全自動化，不需要人工監督。他們想用木頭製造衛星。
The research team argue that wood offers two advantages. Unlike metal, seasoned timber is easily penetrated by radio waves. That means communication antennas, sensors and the like could be kept inside the body of the satellite. This, they hope, will simplify construction. The second advantage is that, on atmospheric re-entry, the wooden parts of the satellite should burn up entirely, making disposal cleaner.
研究小組認為木頭有兩個優點。與金屬不同，風乾的木材很容易被無線電波穿透。這意味著通信天線、傳感器等可以放在衛星體內。他們希望這將簡化建築。第二個優點是，在重返大氣層時，衛星的木製部件應該會完全燃燒，使處理更加清潔。
The researchers hope to launch a prototype version of what they have dubbed a LignoSat by 2023. Space is both extremely cold and very hot, and can switch quickly between the two as a spacecraft moves from shade into direct sunlight. Processing wood to cope with such extremes will be crucial to success. Sumitomo has said merely that its way of doing this is an 「R&D secret」.
研究人員希望在2023年推出他們稱之為木質素衛星的原型。太空既非常冷又非常熱，當太空飛行器從陰影處進入陽光直射時，可以在兩者之間快速切換。加工木材以應對這種極端情況對成功至關重要。住友只是說，它這樣做是「R&D的秘密」。
Sending wood into space is not Sumitomo’s only ambition for the material. It hopes that lessons from the satellite project might assist its plan to build the world’s tallest wooden skyscraper, in Tokyo. This building, dubbed w350, would celebrate the firm’s 350th birthday in 2041, and would, therefore, be 350 metres tall—roughly as high as the Empire State Building without its spire.
將木材送入太空並不是住友對材料的唯一追求。它希望從衛星項目中吸取的教訓可以幫助它在東京建造世界上最高的木質摩天大樓的計劃。這座被稱為w350的建築將在2041年慶祝該公司的350歲生日，因此將有350米高——大約與沒有尖頂的帝國大廈一樣高。
本文章英文原文來自經濟學人，不代表公眾號立場
英文文章及圖片來源：
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2021/01/13/a-japanese-forestry-firm-wants-to-put-wooden-satellites-into-orbit
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