The world’s first wooden satellite, built by Japanese researchers, was successfully launched into space from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Monday (November 4), in an early test of using timber in lunar and Mars exploration, Reuters reports.
LignoSat, developed by Kyoto University and homebuilder Sumitomo Forestry, will be flown to the International Space Station on a SpaceX mission, and later released into orbit about 400 km (250 miles) above the Earth.
Named after the Latin word for “wood,” the palm-sized LignoSat is tasked to demonstrate the cosmic potential of the renewable material as humans explore living in space.
Once deployed, LignoSat will stay in the orbit for six months, with the electronic components onboard measuring how wood endures the extreme environment of space, where temperatures fluctuate from -100 to 100 degrees Celsius every 45 minutes as it orbits from darkness to sunlight.
