WISA Woodsat, seen in an artist's rendering, is billed as the world's first wooden satellite.

WISA Woodsat, seen in an artist's rendering, is billed as the world's first wooden satellite.

[This] got me wondering; why don't we fly any wooden materials in space?" he said in an ESA news release.

Believe it or not, plywood for small satellites "could be a great low-cost alternative to traditional materials and is absolutely feasible with the right testing and modifications," Michelle Johnson, an associate fellow in materials and process engineering at Lockheed Martin Space, tells NPR.

Sarbajit Banerjee, a chemistry professor at Texas A&M University, agrees that wood in space isn't an entirely crazy idea.

"The main difference is that ordinary plywood is too humid for space uses, so we place our wood in a thermal vacuum chamber to dry it out," he says in the ESA news release.

Nyman says the Woodsat team will also be testing varnishes and lacquers aboard the spacecraft.

Woodsat, which the ESA says will launch from New Zealand by the end of the year, is being billed as the first wooden satellite.