Tech Desk 
Nov 05, 2024
In an era that has progressed immensely in terms of technology, the world's first Japan-made wooden satellite was launched into space on Tuesday in an initial inspection involving the use of timber in lunar and Mars exploration.
Named LignoSat, the satellite was designed by Kyoto University and homebuilder Sumitomo Forestry and will land to the International Space Station on a SpaceX mission, followed by its release into orbit about 400 km (250 miles) above the Earth.
Wooden satellite LignoSat made in Japan
LignoSat has been entrusted with the task of showcasing the cosmic potential of the renewable material as humanity is eyeing for extraterrestrial residence.
“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 has flown on the Space Shuttle and a Kyoto University student of human space activities.
Aiming to commit 50 years to plantation and timber house building on the moon and Mars, his team proved that wood is a space-grade material by developing a NASA-certified wooden satellite.
Relating the recent milestone with attempts at embedding wood into aerial technology, Kyoto University forest science professor Koji Murata said: “Early 1900s aeroplanes were made of wood.”
Murata hoped that a wooden satellite would also be reliable since wood is more durable in space than on Earth as water or oxygen don't exist there, meaning there's no chance it could rot or get inflamed.
Regarding the imaginable feat, the researchers claimed that a wooden satellite is also eco-friendly for taking way less toll on the environment at the end of its life than ordinary satellites made of various kinds of metals, while stressing the return of decommissioned satellites, lest they become space debris.
