Wood up
Japan has successfully launched the world’s first wooden satellite.
The spacecraft, called LignoSat, was created as a collaboration between Kyoto University and homebuilder Sumitomo Forestry and was launched on Tuesday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
It sets an important precedent, with its creators hoping to demonstrate the use of a fully renewable material in space that could minimize its impact on the environment once it is retired. Instead of releasing harmful particles like their metal counterparts, wooden satellites could burn up harmlessly in Earth’s atmosphere.
Wood is also surprisingly durable in space due to its lack of water or oxygen, and could efficiently protect electronics in orbit while reducing weight.
“Airplanes from the early 20th century were made of wood,” says Professor Koji Murata, professor of forestry at Kyoto University Reuters. “A wooden satellite should also be feasible.”
Bonfire of the orbitals
Japanese astronaut Takao Doi, who has previously visited the International Space Station, had some nice words for the project.
“With wood, a material we can produce ourselves, we will be able to build houses and live and work in space forever,” he said. Reuters.
Doi also pointed out that metal satellites release aluminum oxide particles as they re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, something previous research has shown could have a devastating impact on our planet’s ozone layer.
“Metal satellites may be banned in the future,” he said. “If we can prove that our first wooden satellite works, we want to pitch it to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.”
The Kyoto University team concluded that wood from the Japanese magnolia tree was best able to withstand the harsh conditions of space after conducting an experiment on board the ISS.
Interestingly, LignoSat is held together without screws or glue thanks to the use of a traditional Japanese woodworking technique called honoki.
The plan is to keep it in orbit around the Earth for six months, while sensors record how it endures the extreme environment. The team is also interested in the material’s ability to protect semiconductors from space radiation.
“It may seem outdated, but wood is actually cutting-edge technology as civilization moves to the moon and Mars,” Kenji Kariya, manager of the Sumitomo Forestry Tsukuba Research Institute, told me. Reuters. “Expansion into space could boost the timber industry.”
More about LignoSat: Japanese scientists show off the world’s first wooden satellite
