A SpaceX Dragon capsule docked on the Worldwide Area Station at 9:52 AM EST on November fifth carrying over 6,000 lbs of cargo together with one small, distinctive prototype. On Tuesday, the corporate’s thirty first resupply mission for NASA delivered the world’s first satellite tv for pc constructed utilizing picket components. Extra particularly, LignoSat is made with honoki, a magnolia tree native to Japan whose wooden was traditionally used to craft samurai sword sheaths.
The origins of LignoSat (named after the Latin phrase for wooden, “lignum”) date again to 2017, and come from former NASA astronaut and engineer, Takao Doi. On the time, Doi questioned if future human explorers on the moon and Mars might sooner or later flip to supplies apart from metal and concrete to assemble secure, resilient buildings. Talking to The New York Times on Tuesday, Doi’s collaborator defined how historical past’s earliest, picket airplanes quickly served as leaping off level.
“…[W]hy not make a satellite tv for pc with wooden, too?” requested Koji Murata, a Kyoto College professor of forest and biomaterials science.
After partnering with one in every of Japan’s oldest timber corporations, Sumitomo Forestry, Doi and Murata’s staff arranged to send three wood samples to the ISS in 2022. Blocks of magnolia, cherry, and birch have been then subjected to the intense photo voltaic radiation, cosmic rays, and the tough temperatures of outer house for practically eight months. Even after the barrage of stress checks, the wooden samples displayed no main indicators of harm or deterioration. In keeping with a Kyoto University rundown earlier this 12 months, the honoki magnolia in the end gained out in the long run as a consequence of its comparative gentle weight and crack resistance.
With the precise wooden chosen, engineers requested a staff of artisans skilled in “sashimono” for assist. The normal Japanese woodworking course of dates again centuries, and depends on exact joint designs as an alternative of nails, glue, screws, or welding to construct buildings and furnishings. On this case, nevertheless, sashimono specialists utilized their strategies to assemble massive parts of LignoSat’s outer casing.
[Related: NASA warns SpaceX over safety issues after astronaut hospitalization.]
Now aboard the ISS, NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Company (JAXA) plan to deploy the LignoSat in December for a six month orbital trial. Because it circles Earth, engineers will monitor elements like wooden deformation, in addition to assess how the fabric does or doesn’t have an effect on onboard sensors monitoring the geomagnetic area. As CNN notes, LignoSat shall be put by way of the wringer throughout that point, withstanding temperature fluctuations ranging between -100 and 100 levels Celsius (-148-212 levels Fahrenheit) roughly each 45 minutes because it orbits the planet. As soon as its mission is full, LignoSat will safely deplete upon reentering the Earth’s ambiance.
Though that is simply step one in the direction of incorporating pure wooden into house exploration, LignoSat’s potential success might additionally preview a future that features way more sustainable supplies in satellites. The NY Instances explains that since present orbital gear is constructed with metallic, their fiery de-orbits often launch dangerous, ozone-damaging emissions like aluminum oxide into the ambiance. Changing lots of these parts with wooden reminiscent of honoki might tremendously scale back their environmental influence—an rising concern because the skies proceed to fill with satellites.
