Finns Are A Lot Like Rural Alaskans: So They're Building Their Next Satellite Out Of... Plywood

Doing It The Copper Valley Way, Finns Are  Sending A Plywood Box Up Into Space 

Projected Finnish satellite. (Woodsat photo) 

Up here in the northern latitudes, we all have to work with what we've got. If all we've got in the backyard is tiny spruce trees – well, that'll have to do when we build our cabins.

If there's plywood down at the lumber yard in Glennallen, we'll use that.

 
In Finland, which is home of the one of the largest birch plywood makers in the world, the Finns are following the same basic template. They're going to head into outer space in the most low-tech of ways – using a plywood box to build a satellite. 

According to SciTechDaily, the Finns are going to place the wood in a thermal vacuum chamber to dry it out, because regular plywood is pretty humid. 

The Nordic countries are know for their design and use of wood. (Take, for example, the Beatles' famous song, "Norwegian Wood" and the Swedish furniture store, Ikea.) 

So it's no wonder that the Finns have gone "back to the source"– and are bragging about their style.

A company spokesman told SciTechDaily, "In the end, Woodsat is simply a beautiful object in terms of traditional Nordic design and simplicity."