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The World’s First Wooden Satellite Is Tiny, Ingenious, and About to Head to Space

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The World’s First Wooden Satellite Is Tiny, Ingenious, and About to Head to Space

  • All the nearly 10,000 satellites in Earth’s orbit will one day crash through the atmosphere, ending its life in an explosive fireball.
  • Unfortunately, that fireball can leave behind metal particles and other substances that can be damaging to the Earth’s atmosphere.
  • So after four years of growing, designing, and building, the University of Kyoto is finally ready to send the world’s first wooden satellite to space.

Orbital satellites make our modern lives possible, but they come with some significant downsides. They’re expensive, vulnerable to the ever-increasing threat of space weapons, and maybe most importantly, they’re junking up our little corner of the galaxy. When satellites re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at the end of their lives, they leave behind metal particles in Earth’s orbit and atmosphere and studies suggest that aluminum introduced during the burning fireball of reentry could also contribute to the depletion of the ozone.

So back in 2020, engineers from Kyoto University, in partnership with the logging company Sumitomo Forestry, had an idea — why not make satellites out of wood?

Four years later, that satellite is officially ready for launch, according to AFP, which says the first-of-its-kind wood spacecraft will travel aboard a SpaceX rocket headed for the International Space Station (ISS) sometime this September. Unlike the hulking behemoths that SpaceX usually hauls aloft, this satellite—named LignoSat—is only a 4-inch cube, crafted from magnolia wood that the satellite’s creators employed a traditional Japanese woodworking technique to avoid the need of using any screws or glue.

Once launched to the ISS, the LignoSat will eventually be released from the Japanese ISS experiment module where the satellite will radio home and report on its ability to withstand huge swings in temperature—in other words, a proof of concept. For six months, the team in Kyoto will analyze data related to wood expansion and contraction as well as internal temperature readings, geomagnetism, equipment performance, and other important data that will eventually inform the development of this satellite’s wooden sequel, the LignoSat-2.

“Expanding the potential of wood as a sustainable resource is significant,” Kyoto University professor Takao Doi said during a press conference. Doi served as a mission specialist on the space shuttle mission (STS-87) back in 1997. He was the first Japanese astronaut to ever perform a spacewalk. “We aim to build human habitats using wood in space, such as on the moon and Mars, in the future.”

With the satellite now complete, the Kyoto University engineers plan to hand over the spacecraft to JAXA, Japan’s space agency, next week before its eventual trip to the ISS later this year.

If successful, the progeny of LignoSat could one day fill low-Earth orbit and beyond. And when those wooden technological wonders reach the end of their mechanical lives, they’ll plunge into Earth’s atmosphere just like their metal forebears—only this time all they’ll leave behind is a streak of biodegradable ash.

Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough. 

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