The top official at the United States space agency NASA has said the country plans to test a spacecraft engine powered with nuclear fission by 2027, an advancement seen as key to long-haul missions including a manned journey to Mars.
NASA will partner with the US military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop the nuclear thermal propulsion engine and launch it into space, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said on Tuesday. The project has been named the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations or DRACO.
…
A nuclear thermal rocket engine uses a fission reactor to generate extremely high temperatures. The heat is then transferred to a liquid propellant, which “is expanded and exhausted through a nozzle to propel the spacecraft”, according to NASA.
“A nuclear thermal rocket can be three or more times more efficient than conventional chemical propulsion,” according to the agency.
…For its part, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has long hailed nuclear thermal propulsion as critical to journeying farther into space.
…In a statement, Stefanie Tompkins, the director of DARPA, hailed the plans to develop the “leap-ahead” advance.
“The space domain is critical to modern commerce, scientific discovery, and national security,” she said.
From Cellular Phone Task Force December 14, 2022 By Arthur Firstenberg
NUMBER OF OPERATING SATELLITES PASSES 7,000
On the evening of Thursday, December 8, 2022, OneWeb launched 40 satellites from Cape Canaveral, Florida, bringing the total number of active satellites in orbit around the Earth to more than 7,000. These cell towers in space are altering the electromagnetic environment of the entire planet and are debilitating and exterminating all life on it.
Even the first fleet of 28 military satellites launched by the United States caused a worldwide pandemic of influenza when they became operational on June 13, 1968. The Hong Kong flu began in June 1968, lasted through April 1970, and killed up to four million people worldwide. To understand why requires a proper understanding of our connection to the universe and what it is that really gives us life and health, and makes our bodies move. In a sense, we are all puppets on invisible strings that connect us to heaven and earth, strings that resonate at the age-old frequencies of the biosphere in which we live, the space between Earth and Sky, whose dimensions never change. And when we modulate and pulsate those strings at random from thousands of locations in space, we change the beautiful music of the earthly orchestra into a discordant chaos that scatters bodies all over the world, helpless before it.
On March 24-25, 2021, the chaos was brought to a new level, that the world now accepts as normal. In that 24-hour period, a record 96 satellites were launched into space on a single day—60 by SpaceX and 36 by OneWeb—and on the same day SpaceX dramatically increased the speed of its satellite internet connections. On that day, people all over the world suddenly could not sleep, were weak and exhausted, had muscle spasms, and hurt and itched all over, especially in their feet and legs. They had skin rashes, were dizzy and nauseous, and had stomach aches and diarrhea. The ringing in their ears was suddenly amplified. Their eyes were inflamed, and their vision suddenly worsened. They had heart arrhythmias, and their blood pressure went out of control. Some had nosebleeds, or coughed up blood. They were anxious, depressed or suicidal, and irritable. Their cats, dogs, chickens, goats and cows were sick at the same time.
In this image made from video provided by NASA, a SpaceX rocket carrying the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, Friday, Dec. 16, 2022. Credit: NASA via AP
Satellite launched to map the world’s oceans, lakes, rivers by Marcia Dunn December 16, 2022
Nicknamed SWOT—short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography…About the size of a SUV, the satellite will measure the height of water on more than 90% of Earth’s surface, allowing scientists to track the flow and identify potential high-risk areas. It will also survey millions of lakes as well as 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers) of rivers.
The satellite will shoot radar pulses at Earth, with the signals bouncing back to be received by a pair of antennas, one on each end of a 33-foot (10-meter) boom.
It should be able to make out currents and eddies less than 13 miles (21 kilometers) across, as well as areas of the ocean where water of varying temperatures merge.
NASA’s current fleet of nearly 30 Earth-observing satellites cannot make out such slight features. And while these older satellites can map the extent of lakes and rivers, their measurements are not as detailed, said the University of North Carolina’s Tamlin Pavelsky, who is part of the mission.
Perhaps most importantly, the satellite will reveal the location and speed of rising sea levels and the shift of coastlines, key to saving lives and property. It will cover the globe between the Arctic and Antarctica at least once every three weeks, as it orbits more than 550 miles (890 kilometers) high. The mission is expected to last three years.
Laurie Leshin, the director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, noted that while the agency is known for its Mars rovers and space telescopes, “this is the planet we care most about.”
To read the complete article: phys[dot]org/news/2022-12-satellite-world-oceans-lakes-rivers.html
When were the public hearings?
Where were the public notices for this worldwide project?
A Southern California mother discovers that the Santa Susana Field Lab, the site of one of the largest nuclear accidents in U.S. history, is located only 7 miles from her home. Concealed from the public eye for 20 years and never fully cleaned up, she grapples with the idea that the site may be responsible for exposing her daughter and community to cancer-causing radioactive waste. The feature documentary, directed by Nicholas Mihm, airs Sunday, November 14th at 10 p.m. ET on MSNBC.
“The scary thing is this may be an indication of the future.”
Martha Desmond/New Mexico State University
White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico
“The military needs a reliable communication system at all times to protect and defend the country from potential threats.” –Tesmanian, September 24, 2020
In August 2020, an AT&T 5G antenna array at White Sands Missile Range went operational, providing “connectivity” for Advanced Battle Management Systems (ABMS) Onramp 2 on August 27.
— Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) is an interconnected battle network – the digital architecture or foundation – which collects, processes and shares data relevant to warfighters in order to make better decisions faster in the kill chain. In order to achieve all-domain superiority, it requires that individual military activities not simply be de-conflicted, but rather integrated – activities in one domain must enhance the effectiveness of those in another domain.
Source: U.S. Air Force photo by SSgt Charlye Alonso dvidshub.net/image/6337680/advanced-battle-management-system-onramp-2
Birds began dying in “unprecedented” numbers there in August 2020.
“It is terribly frightening,” Desmond said. “We’ve never seen anything like this. … We’re losing probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of migratory birds.”In August, large numbers of birds were found dead at White Sands Missile Range and at the White Sands National Monument in what was thought to be an isolated incident, Desmond said. https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/2020/09/12/mass-deaths-migratory-birds-new-mexico-environment/5780282002/
Then, in September 2020, the U.S. Air Force conducted a joint live-fire exercise with SpaceX.
The bird deaths increased.
From the Tesmanian September 24, 2020
U.S. Air Force Chief for Acquisition Dr. Will Roper, who serves as the principal adviser for technology research and development, met with reporters to discuss a live-fire military exercise that took place early this month, Investors news reports. During the conference, Roper shared SpaceX’s Starlink network was tested during the live-fire exercise as part of the military’s Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS). – “What I’ve seen from Starlink has been impressive and positive,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “They’re cleverly engineered satellites cleverly deployed. So, there’s a lot to learn from how they’re designed and I think that there’s a lot we can learn from them.”Roper shared that the Air Force connected Starlink to a “variety of air and terrestrial assets”. Starlink terminals are hooked to the cockpit of a Boeing (BA)KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft to assess the network’s performance while the airplanes fly.DoD plans to depend even more on satellites under its new “All Domain Operations” war-fighting doctrine. The strategy will require air, land, sea, space and cyberspace assets to network directly with each other. They will pass data and intel among them and perhaps even activate each other’s weapons. https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/starlink-airforce Also, https://www.investors.com/news/spacex-starlink-impressed-air-force-in-big-live-fire-exercise/
From the Las Cruces Sun-News
After [August], however, came reports of birds behaving strangely and dying in numerous locations in Doña Ana County, Jemez Pueblo, Roswell, Socorro and other locations statewide.The affected birds have included warblers, sparrows, swallows, blackbirds, flycatchers, and the western wood pewee. “A number of these species are already in trouble,” Desmond said. “They are already experiencing huge population declines and then to have a traumatic event like this is – it’s devastating.” On Saturday, Desmond was joined by Trish Cutler, a wildlife biologist at WSMR, and two NMSU students for an initial evaluation of the carcasses.Desmond said her team also began catching and evaluating living specimens on Friday as residents find birds behaving strangely and gathering in large groups before dying. “People have been reporting that the birds look sleepy … they’re just really lethargic,” Cutler said. “One thing we’re not seeing is our resident birds mixed in with these dead birds. We have resident birds that live here, some of them migrate and some of them don’t, but we’re not getting birds like roadrunners or quail or doves.” On the other hand, numerous migratory species are dying rapidly and it is not immediately clear why, although the cause appears to be recent. Desmond said the birds had moulted, replacing their feathers in preparation for their flight south, “and you have to be healthy to do that; but somewhere after that, as they initiated their migratory route, they got in trouble.“
iNaturalist created the Southwest Avian Mortality Project inaturalist.org/projects/southwest-avian-mortality-project
Naturalist Jenna McCullough: “…[O]ne video on Twitter recorded by local journalist Austin Fisher stood out to me: several dozen swallows dead in an arroyo in Velarde, approximately 40 miles north of Santa Fe. It was only when I reached out to Austin for the purposes of this report that I realized the video wasn’t taken the week before during the cold snap, but rather the previous night, on 13 September. To see it for myself, fellow ornithology grad student, Nick Vinciguerra, and I drove the hour and a half north that night.When we arrived at midnight, we found a macabre scene. Several hundred Violet-green Swallows were strewn across the bank of the Rio Grande. Dozens of birds had stuffed themselves into the few natural cavities, [people disabled by electromagnetic sensitivity often report that being on the ground, even burrowing into the ground, provides relies from the RF-EMF emissions] and many more were dead amongst the vegetation. In total, we found 305 individuals of six species, all of which were insectivores: 258 Violet-green Swallows, 35 Wilson’s Warblers, six Bank Swallows, two Cliff Swallows, one Northern Rough-winged Swallow, a MacGillivray’s Warbler, and two Western Wood-Pewees. These proportions are similar to what was reported by researchers at NMSU.“ https://www.aba.org/the-data-behind-mysterious-bird-deaths-in-new-mexico/
Photo by Jenna McCullough / American Birding Association
“The 305 individuals laid out at the Museum of Southwestern Biology that Nick Vinciguerra and I collected from Velarde, NM on 14 Sep 2020. All individuals will be deposited as specimens in the museum’s Bird Division for future research and education.“
Ms. McCullough examined some possible causes in her article but did not mention the military 5G deployment and exercise as a possible cause, in her twitter comments, or news media comments. It’s possible the military exercises were not publicized, Reporter Austin Fisher dismissed 5G as a cause in his twitter video comments without giving any reason, and supported a cold snap as the reason despite that temperature drop had occurred the week before.
Audubon wrote an article which also did not consider the military 5G exercises. audubon.org/news/study-starvation-and-freak-snow-storm-caused-southwests-mass-bird-die In fact, it published an article in January 2020 calling 5G harm to birds a “myth” and conspiracy theory, and excluded a number of widely known experts in RF-EMF impacts. audubon.org/news/no-5g-radio-waves-do-not-kill-birds The organization also urges the public to download its Audubon Bird Guide App for smartphones.
The New Mexico Department of Fish and Game released their conclusion in a press release December 4, 2020, which did not mention at all the Los Alamos Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) or 5G life-fire exercise, much less as a possible factor, despite its close work with Los Alamos and White Sands Missile Range in its investigation — see below. The state would have been informed, too.
“The single abnormality shared by nearly all birds was body condition ranging from poor to severely emaciated. These observations are evidence of physical exertion without nourishment to support recovery, including: – the large breast muscles controlling birds’ wings were severely shrunken; – kidney failure was apparent in many of the birds; – stomachs and intestines were empty of foodstuffs; – many intestines contained small amounts of blood, which is one of the effects of starvation; – fat deposits, the stored energy for migration, were depleted; and – lung tissues were irritated. …The USGS National Wildlife Health Center, located in Madison, Wis., is renowned for the thoroughness of the diagnostic tests for wildlife disease diagnosis and management….From the lab reports, Department biologists know that migrating birds entered New Mexico in poor body condition and some birds were already succumbing to starvation. The unusual winter storm exacerbated conditions, likely causing birds to become disoriented and fly into objects and buildings. Some were struck by vehicles and many landed on the ground where cold temperatures, ice, snow and predators killed them.The Department would also like to thank all of the partner organizations who were essential to this process. Partners include the: …White Sands Missile Range, … Los Alamos National Laboratories ….“ https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/NMDGF/bulletins/2afbc3e?reqfrom=share
Other states are trialing AT&T 5G equipment for military multi-platform communication, including Monterey, California. These areas will likely see bird deaths as well.
This ecological catastrophe must be stopped.
The price for the “protection” and “defense” is the Earth itself, the Earth’s well-being, and the Earth’s future. No reasonable or sane person would ever pay that price. No sane person would ever sign a death warrant for the birds on the planet, but the birds and the insects, in particular, will be decimated by 5G and existing RF-EMF radiation. Those who don’t know this or won’t admit this haven’t done their research. When that is a major entity such as Audubon, that is the grossest of negligence and possibly a conflict of interest.
Who protects the country from the military, the wireless companies, and the war contractors like Elon Musk? Who’s protecting the Earth?
When you hear the phrase “public-private partnerships” what do you think of – maybe corporate branding on public university research centers, or billionaires raking in taxpayer-funded subsidies? Both of these associations would be true of an increasingly evident manifestation of such partnerships: the construction of multiple rocket launch sites around the planet.
Promoters don’t like to call these rocket launch sites. They prefer the public relations value of calling the sites “spaceports” which sounds much more appealing and, not by coincidence, much less military.
In capitalist countries, new launch site construction is always sold as a good way to create jobs. Because sites are necessarily distant from population centers, they’re proposed in communities where jobs for wages are typically scarce. People in places that have already built launch sites, however, found the promised jobs never materialized. A crew of specialists arrive to handle the occasional launch while the only permanent jobs are a few for security guards and custodians.
Space Alert! has previously reported on sites in Indonesia, Guyana, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It should be noted that it is common for nations to use launch sites located in other nations, so enticements like a decade of free internet service are used to persuade economically depressed countries to host a site. What follows is an overview of what we know about proposed launch sites and local resistance to their toxic fallout.
SaxaVord in Unst, Shetland has seen some evidence of a planned launch site including reports of an environmental impact statement that is unavailable online. Shetlanders have shown themselves to be vigorous advocates for environmental conservation in the past, and it’s likely many would oppose a rocket launch site in the island northernmost in Scotland.
Last winter, the Welsh Government released a National Space Strategy for Wales citing job creation in high-skilled technology professions and monetary rewards for locales identified as Cardiff, Newport, Port Talbot, Broughton, Llanbedr (Gwynedd), Aberporth, and Radnorshire. The profiteers included numerous companies specializing in missile technology and military training: Raytheon, Qinetiq, Quioptiq, and Airbus Defence and Space.
Less than half of the 20 “spaceports” listed by the United States Federal Aviation Administration have seen rocket launches so far. These are scattered around the nation including sites in Florida, Texas, Kodiak (Alaska), and New Mexico but there are many more locations proposed.
–Michigan is one of many states where groups are working to develop rocket launch sites. In August of 2021, the state hosted a North American Space Summit to bring together rocket profiteers and investors. Investors at the summit were told that building commercial rocket launch sites could be a “space gold rush” with the chance of creating next-gen Silicon Valley tech profits. But no such sites in the U.S. have been profitable yet. Pentagon watchers theorize that the reason the U.S. military is using grants to encourage the construction of many sites right now is to gain an advantage in bargaining down the price of launching from them.
Still, many Michigan residents are opposing a plan to put a rocket launch site at the edge of Lake Superior. And voters in the state of Georgia recently rejected a plan for Camden County to purchase land to launch commercial rockets. Opponents who forced the referendum expressed concerns about environmental harms and safety risks.
Where I live in the U.S. we recently organized to oppose the creation of a public-private partnership called the Maine Space Corporation. A bill was rushed through a public hearing without notice and passed by the lower house of the Maine legislature without a roll call vote. Why the urgency? To create a public structure that allowed private corporations and public universities to apply for grants from the federal government in order to develop sites. One of the aerospace companies involved already had extensive contracts with the U.S. military. Another claims to be operating in a purely educational realm with close ties to the state’s university system. Any profits derived from using future launch sites will, of course, be privately held. So far no launch site has been constructed, and commercial fishermen successfully imposed a moratorium in a proposed location at the municipal level. Needless to say, we will monitor future developments closely and spread the word via our website NoToxicRockets4ME.org.
The lands of indigenous people continue to be invaded and colonized by for-profit and/or military launch sites over community objections. In Texas, the Comecrudo Tribe has filed suit citing the American Indian Religious Freedom Act on the grounds that it is violated by the closure of public beaches during SpaceX rocket testing. Comecrudo ceremonies on sacred days must be conducted at the beach. Joined by environmental groups, their suit says such closures also violate the Texas Constitution and names the county and the Texas General Land Office as being in violation.
Kati Rocket Lab in New Zealand was sold to indigenous people whose land it is on as a purely civilian facility and launch site. Lockheed Martin Corporation now runs Rocket Lab and the peace community in NZ is protesting this betrayal as military technology is now hoisted from the launch site.
As launch sites proliferate, so do launches. The rapid growth of new satellites which join older objects already in orbit plus a lot of non-functioning junk has implications for climate, the ozone layer, wildlife exposure to disruptive sound pollution, and toxic fallout here on Earth.
From Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space June 19, 2022
New Global Network video looking at the many impacts from the explosion of rocket launch facilities worldwide
Our latest video explores the various dangers that come from the growing numbers of rocket launch sites around the world.Tens of thousands of launches are having major impacts on Earth’s environment and a peaceful world.
The making of rocket fuels creates major amounts of carbon dioxide releases
Rocket launch exhaust contaminates air and water killing fish, birds and other wildlife
Rocket fuel storage is leaking into local water supplies. A key ingredient called perchlorate severely impacts the thryroid and especially children. Perchlorate is found in milk, lettuce and now contaminates the Colorado River.
Every rocket launch helps to punch a larger hole in the Earth’s ozone layer
When rocket parts fall back to Earth, burning up on re-entry, they drop a toxic stew of burned electronics parts into the air and water
Launch corporations promise lots of jobs, no environmental harm, and no military uses in order to worm their way into communities around the world
This video shows the examples of three communities impacted by rocket launch facilities – Boca Chia, Texas; Kodiak Island, Alaska and Rocket Lab in New Zealand
Most launch facilities, sold to the public as civilian, turn out to be a Trojan Horse as the military soon takes over and Pentagon, DARPA and CIA space missions are launched
The aerospace industry’s damage to the environment and harm to birds, other wildlife, and humans is deplorable. A full-scale, indepth analysis of all aerospace programs and plans is long overdue and urgently needed.
Despite the area’s ecological importance, SpaceX has conducted and expanded operations with little oversight by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and without a comprehensive study of impacts on wildlife and the environment.
From the American Bird Conservancy February 2022
Aerospace company SpaceX is putting birds and other wildlife at risk in the coastal region of Boca Chica, Texas.
The SpaceX facility in Boca Chica is surrounded by federal and state public lands used by hundreds of thousands of individual birds of many different species throughout the year – from the federally Threatened Piping Plover and Red Knot to the Endangered Northern Aplomado Falcon. These lands also support several species of sea turtle and mammals listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Despite the area’s ecological importance, SpaceX has conducted and expanded operations with little oversight by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and without a comprehensive study of impacts on wildlife and the environment.
Help protect birds in Boca Chica: Please demand a full-scale, in-depth analysis of SpaceX’s environmental impacts.
Update:
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has pushed back the final review of SpaceX’s Starship rocket project in Boca Chica, Texas, due to a deluge of comments from bird conservation activists.
The FAA is going through more than 19,000 responses as it develops the final Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) for the Starship project. The document’s new release date is March 28th.
Ongoing construction, fires, and rocket debris have impacted important bird and wildlife habitats, harming vulnerable bird species, including the federally Threatened Red Knot and Piping Plover.
How serious is the threat to birds? According to an analysis by Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program in Corpus Christi, the Piping Plover population in the Boca Chica region has decreased by 54 percent over the past 3 years since SpaceX started testing and launching rockets.
Despite the dangers to birds, the FAA has provided minimal oversight of SpaceX even as it expands operations.
…there is little recognition that Earth’s orbit is a finite resource, the space and Earth environments are connected, and the actions of one actor can affect everyone. Until that changes, we risk multiple tragedies of the commons in space.
From Scientific Reports Published 20 May 2021
Boley, A.C., Byers, M. Satellite mega-constellations create risks in Low Earth Orbit, the atmosphere and on Earth. Sci Rep11, 10642 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89909-7
Excerpts:
The rapid development of mega-constellations risks multiple tragedies of the commons, including tragedies to ground-based astronomy, Earth orbit, and Earth’s upper atmosphere. Moreover, the connections between the Earth and space environments are inadequately taken into account by the adoption of a consumer electronic model applied to space assets. For example, we point out that satellite re-entries from the Starlink mega-constellation alone could deposit more aluminum into Earth’s upper atmosphere than what is done through meteoroids; they could thus become the dominant source of high-altitude alumina. Using simple models, we also show that untracked debris will lead to potentially dangerous on-orbit collisions on a regular basis due to the large number of satellites within mega-constellation orbital shells. The total cross-section of satellites in these constellations also greatly increases the risk of impacts due to meteoroids. De facto orbit occupation by single actors, inadequate regulatory frameworks, and the possibility of free-riding exacerbate these risks. International cooperation is urgently needed, along with a regulatory system that takes into account the effects of tens of thousands of satellites.
…Regardless of the law-making forum, mega-constellations require a shift in perspectives and policies: from looking at single satellites, to evaluating systems of thousands of satellites, and doing so within an understanding of the limitations of Earth’s environment, including its orbits.
Thousands of satellites and 1500 rocket bodies provide considerable mass in LEO, which can break into debris upon collisions, explosions, or degradation in the harsh space environment. Fragmentations increase the cross-section of orbiting material, and with it, the collision probability per time. Eventually, collisions could dominate on-orbit evolution, a situation called the Kessler Syndrome3. There are already over 12,000 trackable debris pieces in LEO, with these being typically 10 cm in diameter or larger. Including sizes down to 1 cm, there are about a million inferred debris pieces, all of which threaten satellites, spacecraft and astronauts due to their orbits crisscrossing at high relative speeds. Simulations of the long-term evolution of debris suggest that LEO is already in the protracted initial stages of the Kessler Syndrome, but that this could be managed through active debris removal4. The addition of satellite mega-constellations and the general proliferation of low-cost satellites in LEO stresses the environment further5,6,7,8.
…The first Starlink satellites contained some components that survive re-entry, with the highest human casualty risk for a single satellite calculated to be 1:17,40022, below NASA’s recommended 1:10,000 threshold. However, the initial approval process did not account for the cumulative casualty risk, and if all the then-planned 12,000 satellites had contained the same components, a continuous 5-year replacement cycle would have seen a 45% probability of one or more casualties per cycle. When the subsequent FCC petition process identified the problem, SpaceX reportedly replaced some materials with a view to having all of the satellite components now demise in the atmosphere23. Other companies, based in other countries, might not follow this best practice or be required to do so.
The demise of satellite components during re-entry introduces a different problem, since none of that material actually disappears. Starlink satellites have a dry mass of about 260 kg; 12,000 satellites will total 3100 tonnes. A 5-year cycle would see on average almost 2 tonnes re-entering Earth’s atmosphere daily. While small compared to the 54 daily tonnes of meteoroid mass24, the satellites are mostly aluminum; most meteoroids, in contrast, contain less than 1% Al by mass25. Thus, depending on the atmospheric residence time of material from re-entered satellites, each mega-constellation will produce fine particulates that could greatly exceed natural forms of high-altitude atmospheric aluminum deposition, particularly if the full numbers of envisaged satellites are launched. Anthropogenic deposition of aluminum in the atmosphere has long been proposed in the context of geoengineering as a way to alter Earth’s albedo26. These proposals have been scientifically controversial and controlled experiments encountered substantial opposition27. Mega-constellations will begin this process as an uncontrolled experiment28.
Rocket launches themselves affect the atmosphere. While cumulative CO2 emissions are small compared to other sources, CO2 is not the relevant metric. Black carbonproduced by kerosene-fueled rocketssuch as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and alumina particles produced by solid-fueled rocketslead to instantaneous radiative forcing. Modelling of the cumulative effect of emissions from 1000 annual launches of hydrocarbon-fuelled rockets found that, after one decade, the black carbon would result in radiative forcing comparable to that resulting from sub-sonic aviation29. Although 1000 launches annually is 10 times the current rate, the construction and renewal of multiple mega-constellations will require dramatic increases in launches. Current launches likely cause non-negligible radiative forcing already30.
Rockets fueled with liquid hydrogen do not produce black carbon but require larger tanks and therefore larger rockets, with solid-fueled boosters often being used to increase payload capacity. SpaceX’s new Starship, which the company plans to use to launch 400 Starlink satellites at a time, will be fueled by methane, the combustion of which produces soot that may, like black carbon, contribute to radiative forcing. All liquid fuels will affect mesospheric cloud formation31, with potential climate consequences. Rockets even threaten the ozone layer by depositing radicals directly into the stratosphere29, with solid-fueled rockets causing the most damage because of the hydrogen chloride and alumina they contain29.
…there is little recognition that Earth’s orbit is a finite resource, the space and Earth environments are connected, and the actions of one actor can affect everyone. Until that changes, we risk multiple tragedies of the commons in space.
PDF nature.com/articles/s41598-021-89909-7.pdf
Boley, A.C., Byers, M. Satellite mega-constellations create risks in Low Earth Orbit, the atmosphere and on Earth. Sci Rep11, 10642 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89909-7
Free The Sky 