In the antiques world ....
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| Antique Treen Clogs .... |
.... little objects made of wood are called treen.
In electronics, it was the Japanese who started miniaturising existing electronic items and selling them to the world.
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| Wooden Satellites - A New Frontier For Japan |
So perhaps its not really a surprise that the Japanese are investigating the idea of space satellites made out of wood. It sounds kinda silly, but in fact wood has properties that are ideal for space. Wood is very resistant to heat expansion and transmission in space (far more so than any metals), and in fact that was why wooden clogs were worn by tarmac layers when tarmac laying was done. Similarly foundry workers in some areas of Northern England would wear them, as they didn't transmit heat if molten metals spilled.
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| Wooden Heat And Cold Resistance Is Useful .. |
In fact although the wooden clogs may have become rarer, many workers still wear a wooden overshoe in those industries.
Wood is also is resistant to sunlight (UV rays), so in many ways its ideal if it could be used .... it's even eco-friendly, in that any space debris would burn up cleanly in the atmosphere when its orbit decayed. The main imperative for this research by Sumitomo Forestry and Kyoto University, is that space junk orbiting the planet is a massive problem, as the ageing satellites start heading back to earth. So any way that we can deal with, or better still, prevent the problem is to be considered.
However, one can't help thinking that this idea may not take off, but as the first launch is predicted for the end of 2021, then we shall watch the skies!
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