> ignition of wood will occur under exposure temperatures of as little as 256ºF for periods of 12 to 16 hours per day in as little as 623 days or approximately 21 months.
It's also possible to encounter focused solar radiation due to various lensing effects.
There's some air in the wood and in the satellite.
Hypothesis: the wood in a wood satellite will quickly dry out as the heat on the sun side boils the residual water out of the wood; and once dry, the wood will easily break due to space debris
Discussion (44 points, 42 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42051687
/? wood satellite https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
/? What are the temperature extremes on the sun side of a satellite https://www.google.com/search?q=What+are+the+temperature+ext... ... 250° F
"Low Temperature Ignition of Wood" https://www.warrenforensics.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/P... :
> ignition of wood will occur under exposure temperatures of as little as 256ºF for periods of 12 to 16 hours per day in as little as 623 days or approximately 21 months.
It's also possible to encounter focused solar radiation due to various lensing effects.
Starlite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlite :
> Starlite was also claimed to have been able to withstand a laser beam that could produce a temperature of 10,000 °C
And, hemp is far more tensile than wood; which probably matters given the hazard of space debris.
Wood does not ignite in space because there's no air in space.
There's non-oxidative types of decomposition, if you can reach high enough temperatures:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrolysis
There's some air in the wood and in the satellite.
Hypothesis: the wood in a wood satellite will quickly dry out as the heat on the sun side boils the residual water out of the wood; and once dry, the wood will easily break due to space debris