Takao Doi, an astronaut and special professor at Kyoto University, holds the world's first wooden satellite, named LignoSat, during a press conference at the university's campus in Kyoto, May 28, 2024. /CFP
The world's first wooden satellite, built by Japanese researchers, was launched into space on Tuesday in an early test of using timber in lunar and Mars exploration. LignoSat, developed by Kyoto University and homebuilder Sumitomo Forestry, reached the International Space Station on a SpaceX mission a day later. Named after the Latin word for wood, the palm-sized LignoSat is tasked with demonstrating the cosmic potential of renewable material as humans explore living in space. LignoSat is made of a wood called honoki, using a traditional Japanese crafts technique without screws or glue.
"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 studies human space activities at Kyoto University. With a 50-year plan to plant trees and build timber houses on the moon and Mars, Doi's team developed a NASA-certified wooden satellite to prove wood is a space-grade material. The main motive for using wood to construct a satellite is to reduce space junk/debris, as it can be easily burned off in the Earth's atmosphere by sending the satellite into low-Earth orbit.