It is estimated that there are over 29,000 pieces of space junk orbiting the earth. Its existence brings various violation issues every time a mission is launched in space. Therefore scientists from Kyoto University and Japan's Sumitomo Forestry Department will launch LignoSat in September this year with the aim of seeing if a satellite made of wood is a solution to this issue. If it goes well it will be the world's first wooden satellite to be successfully launched.
LignoSat has been developed since 2020 with a size of 10 cubic cm and a weight of around 1 kilogram. Magnolia wood was used as a building material after tests on cherry and betula wood were carried out on the International Space Station. The wood of the magnolia tree was found to be the most durable when exposed to the cold temperatures of outer space.
Wooden satellites are expected to reduce the risk of toxic metal contamination when they crash back to earth at the end of their lives. The data collected during the LignoSat mission will be used to develop LignoSat-2 to further test wood technology as a building material for future satellites.
Before LignoSat, WISA Woodsat was shown in 2021. This wooden satellite was designed in Finland also with the aim of solving the same problem. It was supposed to be launched at the end of 2021 but so far it has not been done.