Japan Launches a Satellite Constructed of Wood

Japanese scientists sent the first-ever satellite made of wood into orbit on Monday. Its success could revolutionize the space-engineering industry.

Why It Flies: The satellite space race is in full swing, putting more man-made objects into orbit than ever. Finding a way to make satellites more sustainable could be a game-changer for both company checkbooks and the Earth’s environment.

Between The Fibers: After getting the sign-off from NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the wooden satellite, dubbed “LignoSat,” launched aboard a SpaceX rocket from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center en route to the ISS.

• The small cube-shaped satellite was developed by Koji Murata, a professor of forest and biomaterials science at Kyoto University, in partnership with renowned timber company Sumitomo Forestry.
• It was made of magnolia — a lightweight wood that’s resistant to cracking — in the “sashimono” technique, which uses “intricate joints instead of screws, nails, or glue,” per NYT. It also contains small plastic and silicon parts to hold “an array of electronics.”
• The satellite will be deployed into orbit in early December, where it’ll send data back to Earth on how the wood is responding to the harsh environment — extreme temperature swings, a loss of moisture — before it burns up in the atmosphere after six months.

The Future: Using a material as worldly as wood seems crazy. But, after months of research and testing, wood seems to handle cosmic rays and solar particles pretty well, while not deforming and decomposing as you might expect. That’s great news, because metal satellites release a lot of ozone-damaging pollutants when they burn up in the atmosphere. Wood, on the other hand, just produces water vapor and CO2 — basically breathing. If the LignoSat experiment is successful, logging could become an important industry for interplanetary travel.

Go Woodier: The skyscrapers of the future are even being made of wood.