World's first wooden satellite launched into space

Researchers from Japan believe that timber is a space-grade material that could on day be used to build houses on Mars. Their satellite was crafted from honoki wood without screws or glue to hold it together.

The world's first wooden satellite was launched into space on Tuesday in an attempt to prove that wood is a space-grade material.

Designed by researchers at Kyoto University in Japan, LignoSat is made of honoki, a kind of magnolia tree that was traditionally used to make sword sheaths.

The team aims to plant trees on the moon and Mars in 50 years.

"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 who studies human space activities at Kyoto University.

Testing wood in space

The Japanese researchers conducted a 10-month experiment aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and found that honoki was the timber most suited for space applications.

They then constructed LignoSat using a traditional Japanese crafts technique without screws or glue to hold the satellite together.

"If we can prove our first wooden satellite works, we want to pitch it to Elon Musk's SpaceX," Doi said.

LignoSat is scheduled to orbit the Earth for six months.

It will measure how wood endures the extreme environment of space, where temperatures fluctuate from -100 to 100 degrees Celsius (-148 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit) every 45 minutes as objects orbit through darkness and sunlight.

The satellite will also gauge timber's ability to reduce the impact of space radiation on semiconductors.

Timber vs. metal

The researchers said wood has a number of benefits over metal.

Conventional satellites create oxide particles when they are decommissioned and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, but wood is expected to burn up with less pollution.

Wood is also expected to be more durable in space than Earth because there is no moisture to rot it and no oxygen to burn it.

"It may seem outdated, but wood is actually cutting-edge technology as civilization heads to the moon and Mars," said Kenji Kariya, a manager at Sumitomo Forestry Tsukuba Research Institute. "Expansion to space could invigorate the timber industry."

zc/sms (Reuters, AFP)