While the space industry's carbon footprint is currently small, it's projected to increase as the industry grows. Rocket emissions are particularly harmful because pollutants released into the stratosphere remain there for decades, impacting global climate and ozone.
Rockets currently make up a tiny fraction (1 to 2 percent) of the aviation industry’s carbon footprint. The aviation industry itself accounts for a relatively lowHowever, that number is set to go up. The space industry is growing at a dramatic rate. Ever since SpaceX proved lower-cost satellite launches were possible with reusable rocket technology, the market for small satellite launches has grown at record speed. What’s more, the carbon footprint percentage doesn’t tell the whole story.
There are several factors that make rocket emissions more harmful to our environment. Experts in the field have warned that more regulations are required. Here’s why.Though rockets don’t collectively release a large percentage of humanity’s CO2 emissions, they have a wide-ranging detrimental impact on the environment. This is partly because pollution in the stratosphere remains there for a much longer period of time. “Rockets release pollutants into the upper layers of the atmosphere where these pollutants remain for many years compared to a few days or weeks for pollutants released by aircraft,” Eloise Marais, an associate professor in physical geography at University College London, explained totitled ‘Impact of rocket launch and space debris air pollutant emissions on stratospheric ozone and global climate’. In it, she and her colleagues highlighted evidence that the space sector is already altering the global climate – and that this impact can be seen from Earth’s surface to the upper atmosphere. It has a surprisingly long-lasting effect. “The longer a pollutant remains in the atmosphere, the greater its environmental impact. Weather in the troposphere like rain and wind disperse pollutants and periodically clear the atmosphere of pollutants,” Marais said. “This same weather doesn’t exist in the upper layers of the atmosphere, so the main way that pollutants leave these layers of the atmosphere is by very slow gravitational settlin
SPACE INDUSTRY ROCKET EMISSIONS ENVIRONMENT GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE STRATOSPHERE POLLUTION
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