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Wondering if there are any studies about using wood as a material for insulation in spacecraft? My specific question is does anyone have any experience with it working as an insulator? I remember a specific type of hardwood (Jarrah) being used as a thermal insulator for large scale LNG tanks, but jarrah is super heavy. Are there any good examples of wood used in space?

We made a cubesat mockup out of wood recently, and it prompted all sorts of other ideas.

Wooden CubeSat Mockup Exploded view.

Satsimmer
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    related and potentially helpful: Could a spacecraft be made out of wood? and Puzzler - which spacecraft(s) incorporated real wood structural elements? and especially Advantages/disadvantages of wood for surface of cubesat? Also see Using bamboo as space construction material – uhoh Nov 18 '21 at 02:55
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    Giving the benefit of the doubt that this isn't a spammy plea for survey votes, it needs to be edited to focus on a single question. There are at least 4 separate questions here. I have, accordingly, voted to close as "Needs more focus" until it is fixed up. – Organic Marble Nov 18 '21 at 03:10
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    Lol, It can be both you know. But I guess the thing I'm most interested in, is the thermal properties. I've heard of specific hardwoods being used as insulators at an LNG facility, so I'm most interested in that. – Satsimmer Nov 18 '21 at 04:06
  • @Satsimmer it's great to respond in comments, but see if you can go ahead and edit your question itself (click "edit") and focus it on something specific such that there can be a specific answer. Otherwise the question will likely end up closed. Thanks! – uhoh Nov 18 '21 at 04:22
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    Okay, I've reworded just for the thermal insulation question. – Satsimmer Nov 18 '21 at 04:32
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    Wood in the vacuum of space would outgas all the water. Wood without any water may be very brittle. – Uwe Nov 18 '21 at 07:54
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    I wonder what wood without the lignin would do. I keep seeing posts of transparent wood everywhere. – Satsimmer Nov 18 '21 at 07:59
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    See https://www.science20.com/satellite_diaries/spacepunk_wooden_satellite and https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/21038/could-a-spacecraft-be-made-out-of-wood?noredirect=1&lq=1 – Uwe Nov 18 '21 at 08:00
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    In addition to being heavy, Jarrah though not rare, it is not an abundant timber. The trees only grow in the south west region of Western Australia & they can't be grown in plantations. They need to grow in a diversified forest. – Fred Nov 18 '21 at 10:09
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    This, so start with wood, dissolve lignin. I wonder what happens to cellulose in space! @Uwe's link to the bamboo might give an indication, akin to polymer crazing, after all cellulose is a polymer.

    https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/basic-science-principles/materials-technology/stable-wood-without-lignin/17730668

     – Satsimmer Nov 18 '21 at 11:40
  • @Satsimmer As a support material and hardened polymer, lignin has a number of important functions for the plant. Lignins are essential for the strength of plant tissues, especially for their compressive strength, while the embedded cellulose fibers ensure tensile strength. Wood without lignin would be like fibre-reinforced plastic without the plastic between the fibers. – Uwe Nov 18 '21 at 18:57
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    I’m voting to close this question because "Are there any good examples of wood used in space?" has been asked and answered elsewhere and "How well does wood thermally perform in space applications?" is not really answerable beyond "pretty good when it was used for its wood-like properties". This is basically an advertisement for its IP address-logging questionnaire. – uhoh Nov 20 '21 at 23:50
  • Yeah, I'm not logging your IP address. But if it really bothers you that much, go ahead and vote to close it @uhoh. – Satsimmer Nov 22 '21 at 14:48
  • John Harrison was an English carpenter who invented the first functional marine chronometer. His early work on thermal expansion led him to make clocks with wood mechanisms rather than metal. One example is still running almost 4 centuries later. But it hasn't been to space. – Woody Jul 30 '23 at 04:57

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