APOGEE STAFF
Japanese researchers have created the world’s first wooden satellite to test the potential uses of timber for lunar and Mars exploration. The satellite, called LignoSat, was flown in November 2024 to the International Space Station (ISS), where it was deployed into orbit in December 2024.
Developed by Kyoto University and Tokyo-based logging company Sumitomo Forestry, the palm-sized spacecraft will help researchers learn about the renewable material’s cosmic potential as humans investigate the possibility of 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,” researcher and former astronaut Takao Doi, who studies human space activities, told Reuters.
Doi’s team created the NASA-certified satellite to prove that wood is a space-grade material. Their effort is part of a long-term aim to build timber houses on the moon and Mars. “Early 1900s airplanes were made of wood,” Kyoto University forest science professor Koji Murata, a member of Doi’s team, said. “A wooden satellite should be feasible, too.”
Murata noted that wood is more durable in space than on Earth because there’s no water or oxygen to rot or burn it. Also, a wooden satellite would minimize the environmental impact at the end of its lifespan. Decommissioned satellites must reenter the atmosphere to avoid becoming space debris. Conventional metal satellites create aluminum oxide particles during reentry. Those particles may prove harmful to Earth’s fragile ozone layer, but wooden ones would simply burn up with less pollution, Doi said. “Metal satellites might be banned in the future,” he added. “If we can prove our first wooden satellite works, we want to pitch it to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.”
The researchers found that honoki, a kind of magnolia tree native to Japan and traditionally used in sword sheaths, is best suited for space after a 10-month experiment aboard the ISS. LignoSat was made using a traditional Japanese crafts technique without glue or screws.
A bit bigger than a Rubik’s Cube, the 10-centimeter CubeSat is expected to remain on orbit for six months, with electronic components onboard measuring how the wood endures the extreme environment of space, where temperatures fluctuate from minus 100 to 100 degrees Celsius every 45 minutes as it orbits from darkness to sunlight.
The experiment also will gauge wood’s ability to lessen the impact of space radiation on semiconductors, making it potentially useful for applications such as data center construction, said 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,” he said. “Expansion to space could invigorate the timber industry.”