This launch is a preliminary test of using wood for space research. The palm-sized device weighs one kilogram and is intended to inform plans for the Moon and Mars.
The LignoSat satellite, developed by Kyoto University and the construction company Sumitomo Forestry, will be delivered to the International Space Station as part of a SpaceX mission. It will then be deployed into orbit about 400 km above the Earth, reports CNN.
The LignoSat spacecraft, named after the Latin word for “wood,” is designed to demonstrate the space potential of renewable materials.
“Thanks to wood, a material that we can produce ourselves, we will be able to build houses and live and work in space forever,” said Takao Doi, an astronaut and researcher of human activity in space at Kyoto University.
Wood is a cosmic material.
With a 50-year plan to plant trees and build wooden houses on the Moon and Mars, the Doi team developed a NASA-certified project. The scientists’ goal is to prove that wood can be a usable material in space.
“In the early 1900s, airplanes were made of wood. A satellite can be made of wood too,” said Koji Murata, a professor of forestry at Kyoto University. He says wood may be more durable in space than on Earth because the vacuum lacks water and oxygen that cause rot or combustion.
An important advantage is that a wooden satellite would have a smaller environmental impact at the end of its service life. Decommissioned satellites must re-enter the atmosphere to avoid becoming space debris. Conventional metal satellites create aluminum oxide particles during re-entry, but wooden ones simply burn up with minimal pollution, said Takao Doi. He added that metal satellites might be banned altogether in the future.
Not an anachronism, but a cutting-edge technology.
After a 10-month experiment aboard the International Space Station, researchers found that honoki, a type of magnolia that grows in Japan and is traditionally used to make sword sheaths, is best suited for spacecraft. During the construction of the first wooden satellite, scientists used a traditional Japanese craft technique without screws or glue.
LignoSat will remain in orbit for six months. Its electronics will measure how wood withstands the extreme conditions of space. Temperatures there range from -100 to 100 degrees Celsius. Measurements will be recorded every 45 minutes as the satellite moves from darkness to sunlight in its orbit.
According to Kenji Kariya, manager of the Sumitomo Forestry Tsukuba research institute, LignoSat will also test whether wood can reduce the impact of cosmic radiation on semiconductors.
“It may seem anachronistic, but using wood is actually cutting-edge given that civilization is heading to the Moon and Mars. The application of wood in space projects could also revitalize the forestry industry,” he added.
