Small wooden satellite heads to International Space Station

Nov. 6 (UPI) -- The first wood-panel satellite is on a SpaceX flight to the International Space Station, where it will test the durability of wood in space.

Japanese researchers built a small satellite weighing about two pounds. The satellite, LignoSat, will arrive at the space station on a SpaceX flight and then be released into orbit.

Officials said the panels were made from a type of magnolia tree and did not use screws or glue to put it together.

"We have to be clear that this is not a satellite completely made of wood, but the basic premise behind the idea is really interesting," Simeon Barber, a space research scientist at Britain's Open University told BBC News.

"From a sustainability point of view, wood is a material that can be grown and is therefore renewable. The idea that you might be able to grow wood on another planet to help explore space or make shelters -explorers have always used wood to make shelters when they've gone to new land."

Researchers are hoping that if wood can replace aluminum, it would lessen pollutants falling back into the Earth's atmosphere.

LingoSat was made by Kyoto University researchers and the Japanese company Sumitomo Forestry.