POPULAR SCIENCE
A SpaceX Dragon capsule docked at the International Space Station at 9:52 AM EST on November 5th carrying over 6,000 lbs of cargo along with one small, unique prototype. On Tuesday, the company’s 31st resupply mission for NASA delivered the world’s first satellite built using wooden parts. More specifically, LignoSat is made with honoki, a magnolia tree native to Japan whose wood was historically used to craft samurai sword sheaths.
The origins of LignoSat (named after the Latin word for wood, “lignum”) date back to 2017, and come from former NASA astronaut and engineer, Takao Doi. At the time, Doi wondered if future human explorers on the moon and Mars could one day turn to materials other than steel and concrete to construct safe, resilient buildings. Speaking to The New York Times on Tuesday, Doi’s collaborator explained how history’s earliest, wooden airplanes soon served as jumping off point.
“…[W]hy not make a satellite with wood, too?” asked Koji Murata, a Kyoto University professor of forest and biomaterials science.
After partnering with one of Japan’s oldest timber companies, Sumitomo Forestry, Doi and Murata’s team arranged to send three wood samples to the ISS in 2022. Blocks of magnolia, cherry, and birch were then subjected to the extreme solar radiation, cosmic rays, and the harsh temperatures of outer space for nearly eight months. Even after the barrage of stress tests, the wood samples displayed no major signs of damage or deterioration. According to a Kyoto University rundown earlier this year, the honoki magnolia ultimately won out in the end due to its comparative light weight and crack resistance.
