The famous ecological and economical wooden satellite, designed by the Japan Space Agency (JAXA) finally left for space. After several years of hard work, LignoSat was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. For the next six months, it will orbit the Earth to test the strength of its wood and, hopefully, lay the foundation for a “green” form of space exploration.
LignoSat2 took off from Earth inside a container specially designed to deploy small satellites. The Dragon capsule of the Falcon 9 rocket docked perfectly with the International Space Station (ISS) and the astronauts received more than two thousand kilos of scientific experiments and supplies. Japan’s wooden satellite is one of them.
The satellite is a cube weighing less than a kilogram and 10 centimeters high, made of magnolia wood. It houses only a computer that records the Earth’s magnetic field. The construction of the satellite is unprecedented. No screws, welding or adhesive materials were used for assembly. The creators of the LignoSat made sure that the machine’s wooden walls fit perfectly with matching fine notches, like a puzzle.
The satellite has only one purpose: to test the resistance of Earth’s wood in space weather. The walls will have to protect the electronic content from charged particles from the Sun. If the material proves to be resistant against radiation in real circumstances, in the coming years it could be used to build more non-polluting satellites, and even houses on the Moon and Mars.
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space wood
The use of wood in the space seems counterintuitive, but the theory is well founded. In space there is no water or oxygen, so wood is free of its main threats. Without these elements in the environment, a building will not rot, wear out, or catch fire. Furthermore, a couple of years ago, JAXA took magnolia wood to space to experiment with it and confirmed that it is the most resistant organic material in that environment.
Scientists estimate that the use of wood-based technology will reduce space pollution over time. During re-entry, the final phase of the satellites, they will only burn up instead of leaving metallic debris in the ocean. The adoption of this technology will mean a stop to the proliferation of metallic fragments that remain floating around the Earth. According to an estimate by the European Space Agency, there are up to 130 million objects between one millimeter and one centimeter that pollute the planet’s space.
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