Japan To Soon Launch World’s First Wooden Satellite: Know All About It

Japanese scientists have developed one of the world’s most unique spacecraft- a wooden satellite and they are planning to launch it soon. The LignoSat probe is made of magnolia wood, which has been shown in studies on the International Space Station (ISS) to be highly robust and crack-resistant. Plans are currently being finished for its launch on a US rocket this year, as per a report in the Guardian.

The satellite is being developed in an effort to test the viability of using biodegradable materials, like wood, as environmentally friendly substitutes for the metals that are currently used to construct all satellites. It has been built by researchers from Kyoto University and the logging company Sumitomo Forestry. “All the satellites which re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere burn and create tiny alumina particles, which will float in the upper atmosphere for many years. Eventually, it will affect the environment of the Earth,” Takao Doi, a Japanese astronaut said.

In order to address the issue, researchers in Kyoto launched a project to assess several wood types’ resilience to the demands of space launch and orbital travel. During the initial testing, which took place in labs that replicated space conditions, it was discovered that wood samples had not experienced any degradation, damage or changes in mass.

The samples were then sent to the ISS where trials were conducted for almost a year before being sent back to Earth. Interestingly, there was only a little sign of damage. Koji Murata, the head of the project, said that it was because there was no oxygen in space which could cause any burning.

Several types of wood were tested and the wood from magnolia trees proved to be the most effective and it is now being used to build the satellite. It will contain experiments that will decide how well spacecraft perform in orbit. “One of the missions of the satellite is to measure the deformation of the wooden structure in space. Wood is durable and stable in one direction but may be prone to dimensional changes and cracking in the other direction,” Mr Murata said.

Mr Murata also stated that a final choice on the launch vehicle was still pending and that the options had been reduced to either a similar SpaceX Dragon mission later in the year or a voyage on an Orbital Sciences Cygnus supply ship to the International Space Station. The probe, which is about the size of a coffee cup, is anticipated to stay in orbit for at least six months before being permitted to enter the upper atmosphere.

This comes as recent studies have suggested that the ozone layer may deteriorate due to aluminium from re-entering satellites and could also have an impact on how much sunlight passes through the atmosphere and reaches the ground. This will not be an issue with wood-based satellites like LignoSat, which will only emit a fine spray of biodegradable ash when it burns up and re-enters the atmosphere after finishing its mission.