Breaking ground in space: Japan’s first wooden satellite blasts off Aboard SpaceX mission

On November 5, Japanese researchers successfully launched the world’s first wooden satellite into space, marking an initial test of using timber for lunar and Mars exploration.

LignoSat, created by Kyoto University in collaboration with homebuilder Sumitomo Forestry, will travel to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX mission before being released into orbit approximately 400 kilometres (250 miles) above Earth, Caliber.Az reports citing US media.

Named after the Latin word for “wood,” the palm-sized LignoSat aims to showcase the potential of renewable materials as humanity explores long-term living options in space.

“With timber, a material we can produce ourselves, we will be able to build homes and sustain life and work in space indefinitely,” stated Takao Doi, an astronaut who has flown on the Space Shuttle and is involved in human space activity studies at Kyoto University.

Doi’s team has outlined a 50-year plan to plant trees and construct timber houses on the Moon and Mars, prompting the development of a NASA-certified wooden satellite to demonstrate that wood can serve as a space-grade material.

“Early 1900s aeroplanes were made of wood,” remarked Koji Murata, a forest science professor at Kyoto University. “A wooden satellite should be feasible as well.”

According to Murata, wood exhibits greater durability in space than on Earth because the absence of water and oxygen prevents it from rotting or igniting.

The use of a wooden satellite also has environmental benefits at the end of its life cycle, the researchers noted. Decommissioned satellites must re-enter the atmosphere to avoid contributing to space debris. Unlike conventional metal satellites, which produce aluminum oxide particles during re-entry, wooden satellites would simply burn up, resulting in less pollution, Doi explained.

“Metal satellites might be banned in the future,” Doi added. “If we can demonstrate that our first wooden satellite functions effectively, we aim to pitch the concept to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.”

After a 10-month experiment aboard the International Space Station, researchers determined that honoki, a type of magnolia native to Japan and traditionally used for sword sheaths, is the most suitable wood for spacecraft.

Constructed entirely from honoki using a traditional Japanese craft technique that avoids screws or glue, LignoSat will remain in orbit for six months. The onboard electronic components will measure how wood withstands the extreme conditions of space, where temperatures fluctuate from -100 to 100 degrees Celsius (-148 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit) every 45 minutes as it transitions from darkness to sunlight.

LignoSat will also assess wood’s ability to mitigate the effects of space radiation on semiconductors, making it potentially valuable for applications such as data centre construction, according to Kenji Kariya, a manager at Sumitomo Forestry Tsukuba Research Institute.

“It may seem outdated, but wood is actually cutting-edge technology as civilization looks to expand to the Moon and Mars,” Kariya stated. “This expansion into space could revitalize the timber industry.”

By Tamilla Hasanova