World's first wooden satellite, developed in Japan, heads to space

The world's archetypal woody satellite, built by Japanese researchers, was launched into abstraction connected Tuesday, successful an aboriginal trial of utilizing timber successful lunar and Mars exploration.

LignoSat, developed by Kyoto University and homebuilder Sumitomo Forestry, volition beryllium flown to the International Space Station connected a SpaceX mission, and aboriginal released into orbit astir 400 km (250 miles) supra the Earth.

Named aft the Latin connection for "wood", the palm-sized LignoSat is tasked to show the cosmic imaginable of the renewable worldly arsenic humans research surviving successful space.

"With timber, a worldly we tin nutrient by ourselves, we volition beryllium capable to physique houses, unrecorded and enactment successful abstraction forever," said Takao Doi, an astronaut who has flown connected the Space Shuttle and studies quality abstraction activities astatine Kyoto University.

With a 50-year program of planting trees and gathering timber houses connected the satellite and Mars, Doi's squad decided to make a NASA-certified woody outer to beryllium wood is simply a space-grade material.

"Early 1900s airplanes were made of wood," said Kyoto University wood subject prof Koji Murata. "A woody outer should beryllium feasible, too."

Wood is much durable successful abstraction than connected Earth due to the fact that there's nary h2o oregon oxygen that would rot oregon inflame it, Murata added.

A woody outer besides minimises the biology interaction astatine the extremity of its life, the researchers say.

Decommissioned satellites indispensable re-enter the ambiance to debar becoming

space debris

. Conventional metallic satellites make aluminium oxide particles during re-entry, but woody ones would conscionable pain up with little pollution, Doi said.

"Metal satellites mightiness beryllium banned successful the future," Doi said. "If we tin beryllium our archetypal woody outer works, we privation to transportation it to Elon Musk's SpaceX." INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION

The researchers recovered that honoki, a benignant of magnolia histrion autochthonal successful Japan and traditionally utilized for sword sheaths, is astir suited for spacecraft, aft a 10-month experimentation aboard the International Space Station.

LignoSat is made of honoki, utilizing a accepted Japanese crafts method without screws oregon glue.

Once deployed, LignoSat volition enactment successful the orbit for six months, with the physics components onboard measuring however wood endures the utmost situation of space, wherever temperatures fluctuate from -100 to 100 degrees Celsius each 45 minutes arsenic it orbits from acheronian to sunlight.

LignoSat volition besides gauge wood's quality to trim the interaction of abstraction radiation connected semiconductors, making it utile for applications specified arsenic information centre construction, said Kenji Kariya, a manager astatine Sumitomo Forestry Tsukuba Research Institute.

"It whitethorn look outdated, but wood is really cutting-edge exertion arsenic civilisation heads to the satellite and Mars," helium said. "Expansion to abstraction could invigorate the timber industry."

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