World's First Wooden Satellite Launched into Space

By Kantaro Komiya and Irene Wang

KYOTO (Reuters) – The world's first wooden satellite, built by Japanese researchers, was launched into space on Tuesday, marking an early test for using timber in lunar and Mars exploration.

LignoSat, developed by Kyoto University and homebuilder Sumitomo Forestry, will be flown to the International Space Station on a SpaceX mission and later released into orbit about 400 km (250 miles) above the Earth.

Named after the Latin word for "wood," the palm-sized LignoSat is tasked with demonstrating the cosmic potential of renewable materials as humans explore living in space.

> "With timber, a material we can produce by ourselves, we will be able to build houses, live, and work in space forever," said Takao Doi, an astronaut and researcher at Kyoto University.

With a 50-year plan for planting trees and constructing timber houses on the moon and Mars, Doi's team developed a NASA-certified wooden satellite to prove wood can be a space-grade material.

A Historical Perspective
"Early 1900s airplanes were made of wood," said Koji Murata, a Kyoto University forest science professor. "A wooden satellite should be feasible, too."
Murata added that wood is more durable in space than on Earth due to the absence of water and oxygen, which would otherwise rot or inflame the material.

Environmental Impact
Researchers claim a wooden satellite minimizes environmental impact at the end of its life.
Decommissioned satellites typically re-enter the atmosphere to reduce space debris. Conventional metal satellites emit aluminum oxide particles during re-entry, but wooden satellites would burn up with reduced pollution, according to Doi.

> "Metal satellites might be banned in the future," Doi stated. "If we can prove our first wooden satellite works, we want to pitch it to Elon Musk's SpaceX."

Industrial Application
The researchers identified honoki, a type of magnolia tree native to Japan, as the best material for spacecraft after a 10-month experiment aboard the International Space Station.

LignoSat is crafted from honoki using traditional Japanese techniques without screws or glue. Once deployed, LignoSat will remain in orbit for six months, measuring how wood holds up in the extreme conditions of space, where temperatures vary from -100 to 100 degrees Celsius approximately every 45 minutes.

Additionally, LignoSat will assess wood’s ability to shield semiconductors from space radiation, hinting at applications like data center 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 heads to the moon and Mars," Kariya said. "Expansion to space could invigorate the timber industry."