Japan has just launched the first satellite covered in wooden planks into space. According to BBCthis small device weighs only 900 grams and was made of pine wood. connect (a type of magnolia). The satellite departed aboard a SpaceX ship towards the International Space Station, from where it will be placed into orbit.
Appointed as LignoSatthis device will orbit the Earth for six months, a time that will be used to test the ability of wood to survive the strong changes in pressure and temperature in the Earth’s atmosphere. If the experiment is successful, the use of this material in the manufacture of devices launched into space would help minimize their impact on the environment.
Moving towards sustainability in space
LignoSat was built by Kyoto University in collaboration with Sumitomo Forestry, a company specializing in the use of wood for various applications. The choice of this material has an important ecological purpose. As he said Reuters Takao Doi, an astronaut and researcher at the institution, metallic satellites generate alumina particles during their re-entry to Earth. In comparison, wood would completely burn up upon entering the atmospheretherefore it would pollute less.
Another advantage of this material, according to forest science professor Koji Murata, is that it can last much longer in space than on Earth, because in the former case there is no water or oxygen to rot or ignite it. This means that the amount of space junk orbiting our planet would be reduced. According to the European Space Agency, space debris is a growing problem, with over 30,000 pieces of debris currently in orbit.
The experiment will also measure how wood is able to reduce the exposure of semiconductors to cosmic rays. According to Kenji Kariya, manager of the Sumitomo Forestry Tsukuba Research Institute, this information could have applications in the construction of data centers and other radiation-sensitive facilities.
Image | @spaceKUwood at X.
The future of space exploration is in wood
The name of this satellite, LignoSat, comes from Latin and means precisely “wood”. The tree used to make it was connecta type of magnolia originally from Japan traditionally used for sword scabbards due to its durability. This wood was chosen after 10 months of experimentation with it on the International Space Station.
Assembled using Japanese craft techniques without screws or glue, LignoSat will orbit the Earth for six months to evaluate the material’s resistance to the harsh environment of space, where temperatures change from dark to light every 45 minutes.
Takao Doi thinks that metal satellites could be banned in the future. “If we can prove that our first wooden satellite works, we want to present it to Elon Musk’s SpaceX“, he said. Moreover, the team believes in it In 50 years it will be possible to grow wood on the moon and Mars. This would allow humans to build sustainable buildings to live and work self-sufficiently in space.
Cover Image | @spaceKUwood at X.
