Space test shows magnolia may be best for wooden artificial satellite LignoSat

A world undertaking led by Kyoto College examined and confirmed the excessive sturdiness of space wooden on the Worldwide House Station—the ISS. The experiment outcomes confirmed minimal deterioration and good stability of the samples chosen for the picket synthetic satellite LignoSat.

The analysis group carried out a preliminary inspection involving power exams and elemental and crystal structural analyses of the wooden samples, retrieved from space by Astronaut Koichi Wakata and returned to Earth from the ISS on SpaceX CRS-26—a Industrial Resupply Service mission.

Regardless of the acute setting of outer space involving vital temperature modifications and publicity to intense cosmic rays and harmful solar particles for ten months, exams confirmed no decomposition or deformations, akin to cracking, warping, peeling, or floor harm.

Three wooden specimens have been examined and confirmed no deformation after space publicity. The experiment outcomes additionally confirmed no mass change in every wooden specimen earlier than and after space publicity.

The analysis group has decided that LignoSat, scheduled to be collectively launched in 2024 by NASA and JAXA, will doubtless use the Magnolia wooden—or “Hoonoki” in Japanese—for its superb properties. The staff selected Magnolia’s comparatively excessive workability, dimensional stability and total power.

In April 2020, Kyoto College and Sumitomo Forestry collectively launched the LignoStella House Wooden Venture. They carried out space publicity exams for over 290 days in 2022 on the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo of the ISS.

Forward of the 2024 deliberate launch of a picket synthetic satellite, the analysis group is investigating the elemental mechanism of nano-level materials degradation. Their findings might result in sturdy and high-functioning wood supplies for brand spanking new purposes.