The world’s first wooden satellite LignoSat has successfully traveled into space. It is carried on the Dragon supply spacecraft, which will soon dock to the ISS.
The LignoSat wooden satellite project was first announced in 2020. A team of scientists from Kyoto University and Japanese logging company Sumitomo Forestry is involved in the project. LignoSat designers chose wood as they believe it can be a viable alternative to the metals traditionally used to build spacecraft. Under vacuum conditions, it is immune to the moisture, oxygen and microorganisms that cause it to rot on Earth. And from the perspective of strength, wood is quite comparable to aluminum. In addition, it will burn up completely upon re-entry, eliminating the risk of falling debris and metallic particles that could be harmful to the environment.
To determine which type of wood is best suited for building the satellite, JAXA sent three samples placed in Japan’s Kibo laboratory module to the ISS in 2022. Eventually the magnolia was chosen.
The appearance of LignoSat resembles a cube with a edge length of 10 cm. It is made using traditional Japanese techniques, with no metal fasteners or glue. Inside it are electronic components that will measure precisely how the tree copes with the extreme conditions of the space environment. Additionally, the ability of wood to reduce the effects of cosmic radiation on microchips will be studied.
LignoSat will be released into space from Japan’s Kibo module in about a month. The spacecraft is designed for a service life of six months. According to the designers, they hope that if their experiment is successful, it will open a new page in space exploration by providing future extraterrestrial colonies with material they can produce on their own and use to build space technology and create modules.
Earlier we reported about how the selfies taken by the Lithuanian satellite MP42 found a trace of the collision with space debris.
Provided by Phys.org
