Does space tourism hurt the environment?

Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. It can be orbital, suborbital or lunar travel. In 2001, U.S. millionaire Dennis Tito arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) via a Russian Soyuz rocket, becoming the world’s first space tourist. Since then, a handful of tourists have travelled to the ISS. There have also been many failed attempts by private players. But the recent developments in space tourism are something to watch out for.

In July 2021, space tourism gained a new boost as wealthy businessmen Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, travelled to space as tourists in their company’s VSS Unity spacecraft and Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket respectively. Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, SpaceX and other private space firms have kick-started a commercial space race with each announcing their plans to launch more tourists into space. Already, people are buying their million-dollar tickets to space. As the industry is poised for major growth, environmentalists are worried about its carbon footprint. Will space tourism harm our environment?

When rockets launch into space, they require a huge amount of propellants to make them out of the Earth’s atmosphere. Those fuels emit a variety of substances into the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide, and other chemicals. The carbon emissions from rockets are small compared to those from the aircraft industry, but they could get worse if space tourism becomes popular.

The emissions of a flight to space is of concern because just a few people hop aboard one of these vehicles, so the emissions per passenger are much higher. According to The Guardian, rockets emit up to 100 times more carbon-dioxide per passenger than aeroplanes.

Soot and heat

Roughly two-thirds of the propellant exhaust is released into the stratosphere and mesosphere, where it can persist for at least two to three years. The very high temperature during launch and re-entry also convert stable nitrogen in the air into reactive nitrogen oxides. These gases and particles have many negative effects on the atmosphere. They can eventually lead to depletion of the ozone layer, which guards life on Earth against harmful UV radiation.

Certain fuels used in rockets generate soot. Soot is a carbonaceous particulate matter that is 2.5 micrometres in diameter or smaller. Such fine particles are even smaller than dust and mould spores. It is comprised of a variety of pollutants, including chemicals, acids, metals, soils, and dust, which are suspended in the air after emission.

Carbon dioxide and soot trap heat in the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. A study from 2010 found that the soot released by 1,000 space tourism flights could warm Antarctica by nearly one degree Celsius.

At a time when the impact of climate change is quite stark, it is hard to ignore the contention that the huge money poured into space technology could instead be invested in making life better on our planet.

Picture Credit : Google

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