Japanese scientists want to send a wooden satellite into space

CNN

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Aluminum rockets and steel skyscrapers; slick high-speed shuttles and glassy facades: that’s how “the future” has been imagined for decades.

But that’s not what Koji Murata imagines. A researcher at Kyoto University in Japan, Murata has been exploring how biological materials could be used in space.

Murata wondered if he “could build a wooden house on the moon or Mars,” and decided to test the theory — by creating a wooden satellite.

Recent research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that 10% of atmospheric aerosol in the stratosphere contained metallic particles from spacecraft, including satellites. The long-term impact of these metal fragments is unknown, but scientists are concerned it could damage Earth’s fragile ozone layer.

Wooden satellites would be better for the planet while still providing the same functionality as their metal counterparts, says Murata.

“At the end of their life, satellites re-enter the atmosphere. The difference is, the wood in the LingoSat will burn up and eventually become a gas, whereas metals become fine particles instead,” says Murata.

It’s not just a pipedream: Murata and his team have been working on the project for four years and sent wood samples to space in 2021 to test the material’s resilience to space conditions.

Now, they are working with Japan’s space agency (JAXA) and NASA to send the prototype satellite, called LingoSat, into orbit early next year.

Magnolia, cherry and birch

For Murata, who is head of the space-wood project at Kyoto University, wood is an obvious choice for space structures.

“When you use wood on Earth, you have the problems of burning, rotting, and deformation, but in space, you don’t have those problems: there is no oxygen in space, so it doesn’t burn, and no living creatures live in them, so they don’t rot,” he says.

Engineers at Kyoto University are building a wooden satellite that will be launched into space in a joint mission with JAXA and NASA. Sourced for Tech for Good 2023.

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