Space Wood
Written by Stephanie Gooch-York
Using wood in open space beyond the confines of a spacecraft or habitat would require some form of transmutation to maintain its original state and prevent it from being completely consumed by external forces, such as radiation or the lack of atmosphere, which can lead to a loss of moisture and structural integrity in zero gravity. Wood doesn’t grow in space; it needs specific nutrients from the mother and from each other, pieces of itself, to regenerate and sustain naturally.
Wood doesn’t grow in space; it needs specific nutrients from the mother and each other, pieces of itself, to regenerate and sustain naturally.
Trees form similar branching in size and structure underground to connect to the others around them. This allows them to nurture and care for the community as a whole. When one gets sick, the others redirect nutrients to provide additional bolstering for what the weak need to survive.
There are so many uses for their power that it’s awe-inspiring. Yet we continue to destroy her because she regenerates slower than we can consume her.
Containing a natural resource, dividing and parsing it into different variables, leads to many outcomes. If wood were to survive in space in its original form, it would need to contort, shapeshift, and evolve, literally meaning reconstitute and reconstruct the natural order of things to further a specific human agenda.
This is literally how we survive, though. We use what’s around us to do just that. We lean on nature to provide protection from her. We lean on each other.
Does everything in our world have the potential to be transmuted into something better for the whole if we consider the reality of our variables and adjust them accordingly, so as not to waste resources and become more efficient for the greater good?
In breaking something apart, breaking it down into its most dry, barren state, we’re still left with parts to use. That use a lot of times serves such a great purpose. It keeps us warm, shelters us, enables us to eat food without dying.
So many ways to serve. Not just one way to use what’s inherent or given, but plenty. Even through the destruction of what we find to be true.
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