YOKOHAMA -- A building here whose exterior is reminiscent of an ancient Greek temple houses a wooden structure often seen inside traditional Japanese architecture. Nestled within the lush greenery ...

But Japan has a long and continuous history of wooden architecture. The devastating earthquakes of 1891 and 1923 exposed the shortcomings of then-popular European-style brick and stone buildings.

With a 50-year plan of planting trees and building timber houses on the moon and Mars, Doi’s team decided to develop a NASA-certified wooden satellite to prove that wood is a space-grade material.