Space Trees

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Last week, the International Space Station (ISS) welcomed a unique visitor: A palm-sized wooden satellite called LignoSat.

Launched aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule, the innovative satellite is the first of its kind and marks a major step toward sustainable space technology.

Researchers at Japan’s Kyoto University and the logging company Sumitomo Forestry crafted the LignoSat from the Japanese magnolia wood known as “honoki” and used traditional techniques – no glue or screws – to assemble it, explained Space.com.

The device’s wooden structure aimed to address growing concerns about space pollution.

“While some of you might think that wood in space seems a little counterintuitive, researchers hope this investigation demonstrates that a wooden satellite can be more sustainable and less polluting for the environment than conventional satellites,” Meghan Everett, NASA’s deputy chief scientist for the ISS program, said in a briefing.

Traditional metal satellites produce aluminum oxides when they burn up on re-entry, which harms Earth’s ozone layer and alters its thermal balance. There has been a growing search for greener alternatives as the number of satellites rises – SpaceX’s Starlink for example has about 6,400 active satellites orbiting Earth.

In contrast, wooden satellites would leave behind fewer pollutants as they re-entered our planet’s atmosphere.

“Metal satellites might be banned in the future,” retired Japanese astronaut Takao Doi, now a professor at Kyoto University, told Reuters. “If we can prove our first wooden satellite works, we want to pitch it to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.”

Once released from the ISS, LignoSat is set to orbit Earth for six months. Its onboard electronics would measure the satellite’s structural integrity as it faced radiation, atomic oxygen, and extreme temperature changes between -148 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit.

Meanwhile, Kenji Kariya from Sumitomo Forestry highlighted that the use of wood in space could invigorate the timber industry on Earth and reintroduce this ancient building material into a modern solution for sustainable space technology.

“It may seem outdated, but wood is actually cutting-edge technology as civilization heads to the Moon and Mars,” he explained to Reuters. “Expansion to space could invigorate the timber industry.”