A Finnish group planning the launch of an experimental wooden satellite hopes to learn from the experience of Japanese researchers, whose wooden CubeSat survived the rigors of space before burning up as planned in Earth’s atmosphere.
Project partner Huld, a technology and design company, prefers birch plywood to the magnolia used in the Japanese LignoSat, which was flown to the International Space Station (ISS) in November 2024 and deployed the following month, according to The Economist magazine. Communication was lost once LignoSat, a little bigger than a Rubik’s cube, left the ISS. But space trackers confirmed its wooden panels held firm against the extreme cold, heat and solar wind of space before reentry 116 days later.
The materials in Huld’s WISA Woodsat are similar to those used to insulate tanks carrying liquefied natural gas. The Finnish group tried to orbit a wooden satellite in 2021 and 2022, successfully testing a device in the stratosphere via balloon but failing to reach space, The Economist reported.
The Japanese researchers noted that wood is more durable in space than on Earth because there’s no water or oxygen to rot or burn it. Also, it holds potential advantages over conventional metal satellites because it would create fewer dangerous particles to damage the ozone layer upon reentry.