environmental impact of commercial space travel

The rise of space tourism could affect Earth's climate in unforeseen ways, scientists worry

Are the effects of rocket launches on the atmosphere really negligible?

Scientists worry that growing numbers of rocket flights and the rise of space tourism could harm Earth's atmosphere and contribute to climate change. 

When billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos soared into space this month aboard their companies' suborbital tourism vehicles, much of the world clapped in awe. 

But for some scientists, these milestones represented something other than just a technical accomplishment. Achieved after years of delays and despite significant setbacks , the flights marked the potential beginning of a long-awaited era that might see rockets fly through the so-far rather pristine upper layers of the atmosphere far more often than they do today. In the case of SpaceShipTwo, the vehicle operated by Branson's Virgin Galactic, these flights are powered by a hybrid engine that burns rubber and leaves behind a cloud of soot.

"Hybrid engines can use different types of fuels, but they always generate a lot of soot," said Filippo Maggi, associate professor of aerospace engineering at Politecnico di Milano, Italy, who researches rocket propulsion technologies and was part of a team that several years ago published an extensive analysis of hybrid rocket engine emissions. "These engines work like a candle, and their burning process creates conditions that are favorable for soot generation."

Related: Air pollution from reentering megaconstellation satellites could cause ozone hole 2.0

According to Dallas Kasaboski, principal analyst at the space consultancy Northern Sky Research, a single Virgin Galactic suborbital space tourism flight, lasting about an hour and a half, can generate as much pollution as a 10-hour trans-Atlantic flight. Some scientists consider that disconcerting, in light of Virgin Galactic’s ambitions to fly paying tourists to the edge of space several times a day.

"Even if the suborbital tourism market is launching at a fraction of the number of launches compared to the rest of the [tourism] industry, each of their flights has a much higher contribution, and that could be a problem," Kasaboski told Space.com.

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Virgin Galactic's rockets are, of course, not the only culprits. All rocket motors burning hydrocarbon fuels generate soot, Maggi said. Solid rocket engines, such as those used in the past in the boosters of NASA's space shuttle , burn metallic compounds and emit aluminum oxide particles together with hydrochloric acid, both of which have a damaging effect on the atmosphere.

The BE-3 engine that powers Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital vehicle, on the other hand, combines liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to create thrust. The BE-3 is not a big polluter compared to other rocket engines, emitting mainly water along with some minor combustion products, experts say .

Too little is known

For Karen Rosenlof, senior scientist at the Chemical Sciences Laboratory at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the biggest problem is that rockets pollute the higher layers of the atmosphere — the stratosphere, which starts at an altitude of about 6.2 miles (10 kilometers), and the mesosphere, which goes upward from 31 miles (50 km). 

"You are emitting pollutants in places where you don't normally emit it," Rosenlof told Space.com. "We really need to understand. If we increase these things, what is the potential damage?"

So far, the impact of rocket launches on the atmosphere has been negligible, according to Martin Ross, an atmospheric scientist at the Aerospace Corporation who often works with Rosenlof. But that's simply because there have not been that many launches. 

"The amount of fuel currently burned by the space industry is less than 1% of the fuel burned by aviation," Ross told Space.com. "So there has not been a lot of research, and that makes sense. But things are changing in a way that suggests that we should learn about this in more detail."

Northern Sky Research predicts that the number of space tourism flights will skyrocket over the next decade, from maybe 10 a year in the near future to 360 a year by 2030, Kasaboski said. This estimate is still far below the growth rate that space tourism companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin envision for themselves. 

"Demand for suborbital tourism is extremely high," Kasaboski said. "These companies virtually have customers waiting in a line, and therefore they want to scale up. Ultimately, they would want to fly multiple times a day, just like short-haul aircraft do."

The rate of rocket launches delivering satellites into orbit is expected to grow as well. But Kasaboski sees bigger potential for growth in space tourism. 

"It's like the difference between a cargo flight and a passenger flight," Kasaboski said. "There's a lot more passengers that are looking to fly."

The problem is, according to Ross, that the scientific community has no idea and not enough data to tell at what point rocket launches will start having a measurable effect on the planet's climate. At the same time, the stratosphere is already changing as the number of rocket launches sneakily grows.

"The impacts of these [rocket-generated] particles are not well understood even to an order of magnitude, the factor of 10," Ross said. "The uncertainty is large, and we need to narrow that down and predict how space might be impacting the atmosphere."

Space shuttle's ozone holes 

So far, the only direct measurements of the effects of rocket launches on chemical processes in the atmosphere come from the space shuttle era. In the 1990s, as the world was coming together to salvage the damaged ozone layer , NASA, NOAA and the U.S. Air Force put together a campaign that looked at the effects of the emissions from the space shuttle's solid fuel boosters on ozone in the stratosphere. 

"In the 1990s, there were significant concerns about chlorine from solid rocket motors," Ross said. "Chlorine is the bad guy to ozone in the stratosphere, and there were some models which suggested that ozone depletion from solid rocket motors would be very significant."

The scientists used NASA's WB 57 high-altitude aircraft to fly through the plumes generated by the space shuttle rockets in Florida. Reaching altitudes of up to 60,000 feet (19 km), they were able to measure the chemical reactions in the lower stratosphere just after the rockets' passage. 

"One of the fundamental questions was how much chlorine is being made in these solid rocket motors and in what form," David Fahey, the director of the Chemical Sciences Laboratory at NOAA, who led the study, told Space.com. "We measured it several times and then analyzed the results. At that time, there were not enough space shuttle launches to make a difference globally, but locally one could deplete the ozone layer due to this diffuse plume [left behind by the rocket]."

The space shuttle retired 10 years ago, but rockets generating ozone-damaging substances continue launching humans and satellites to space today. 

In fact, in 2018, in its latest Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion , which comes out every four years, the World Meteorological Organization included rockets as a potential future concern. The organization called for more research to be done as the number of launches is expected to increase.  

Worse than geoengineering 

Rosenlof's team studies the broader effects of human-made substances in the higher layers of the atmosphere using powerful NOAA supercomputers. The work is akin to predicting the proverbial butterfly effect, the influence of minuscule changes in the chemistry of the air tens of miles above Earth on climate and weather patterns on the ground. For her, black carbon, or soot, emitted by rockets burning hydrocarbon fuels, is of particular concern.

"The problem with soot is that it absorbs ultraviolet light, and that means that it could heat the stratosphere," Rosenlof said. "When you start heating the stratosphere, the layer above the troposphere [closest to the ground], you start changing the motion in the stratosphere. You are changing the energy transfer, and that could actually affect what is happening on the ground."

Rosenlof points out that many of the particles generated by some rockets have been of interest to scientists due to the possible effects they could have on the global climate in a different context — that of geoengineering , the deliberate tampering with the atmosphere with the aim of stopping or mitigating global warming. 

Rosenlof recently co-authored a paper that used the same powerful NOAA supercomputers to model what the scientists call a climate intervention. The team was interested in the climate effects of dispersing sulfur dioxide particles, which are known to reflect light away from Earth, in combination with soot (which is also part of rocket emissions) in the lower stratosphere. Soot absorbs energy from sunlight and pushes the sulfur dioxide aerosol particles to a higher altitude by warming up the surrounding air. At that higher altitude, the sulfur dioxide can start its climate-cooling work. The experiment modeled what would happen when 1.1 million tons of sunlight-reflecting sulfur dioxide mixed with 11,000 tons of black carbon were released in the upper troposphere by aircraft over a 10-day period. 

The study didn't find any significant negative effects on weather on Earth. Yet, those results do not dispel Rosenlof's concerns about the possible risks associated with the growing number of rocket launches. 

Altering the jet stream

"Black carbon in the geoengineering experiment that we did isn't as high as the stuff from these rockets," she said. "The problem is that the higher you go, the longer something lasts. Neither of them is ideal, because either of them would produce heating in places where we don't have heating right now."

According to Maggi, the soot particles generated by hybrid rocket engines are extremely small and light-weight. In fact, when he and his colleagues tried to measure the soot output of hybrid rocket engines in a laboratory, they couldn't reliably do it with precision because of the particles' minuscule size. 

"We were able to measure the particle output from solid rocket motors," Maggi said. "These are about a micron in size, and there [are] a lot of them. But because they are large, they fall to the ground more quickly. In hybrid rocket engines, we were not able to collect the soot from the plume because it's extremely fine, a few nanometres in size."

Maggi fears these particles could, in fact, stay in the stratosphere forever.

"They have the same size as the carbon emitted by aircrafts," Maggi said. "And we know that there is a layer of carbon in the atmosphere at the flight level of aircrafts which is staying there. It's very likely that particles coming from rocket motors will do the same."

The accumulation of these particles over years and decades is what worries the scientists. Just as the current climate crisis started relatively slowly as the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere grew, the pollution in the stratosphere may only start causing harm some years down the road.

Rosenlof added that in the long term, injecting pollutants into the stratosphere could alter the polar jet stream, change winter storm patterns or affect average rainfall. 

"You might go from 25 inches [64 centimeters] a year to 20 inches [51 cm] a year in some places, which maybe doesn't sound like that big of a deal unless you are a farmer trying to grow your wheat right there," Rosenlof said. "Then a subtle change in rainfall can impact your crop yields."

Work to be done 

For this reason, Fahey says, it is critical that scientific work starts now to evaluate the future risks. 

"There is this fundamental gap where we just don't have the numbers, and that means that the science is limited because we have this lack of information," he said. "We feel it is part of our responsibility [at NOAA] to assess the impact of human activity on the stratosphere. Rockets are a principal and unique source [of stratospheric pollution], the launch frequencies are increasing and the effects are accumulating."

Fahey envisions a wider research program that would analyze the emissions and impacts of individual types of rocket engines and fuels on the stratosphere. The data could be used in Rosenlof's models to better predict the effects in accordance with the expected growth of the number of launches. Fahey, however, says that a political decision would have to come first to provide NOAA and its partners with funding that would enable them to take the high-altitude aircraft to the sky again and gather the data. The good news is, he added, that the U.S. Congress seems to be aware of the problem and things might soon start to move. 

"We would like to see a national program run by NOAA or the Air Force that would develop a database with basic emission characteristics of modern propulsion systems based on observations," he said. "We could gather some data in ground tests but also in the same way that we did with the space shuttle — by flying through the plumes just after launch."

Follow Tereza Pultarova on Twitter @TerezaPultarova. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook . 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Tereza is a London-based science and technology journalist, aspiring fiction writer and amateur gymnast. Originally from Prague, the Czech Republic, she spent the first seven years of her career working as a reporter, script-writer and presenter for various TV programmes of the Czech Public Service Television. She later took a career break to pursue further education and added a Master's in Science from the International Space University, France, to her Bachelor's in Journalism and Master's in Cultural Anthropology from Prague's Charles University. She worked as a reporter at the Engineering and Technology magazine, freelanced for a range of publications including Live Science, Space.com, Professional Engineering, Via Satellite and Space News and served as a maternity cover science editor at the European Space Agency.

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How bad is space tourism for the environment? And other space travel questions, answered.

Six questions to consider before launching yourself into space.

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For many, the rise of commercial space tourism is a vulgar display of wealth and power . Amid several global crises, including climate change and a pandemic, billionaires are spending their cash on launching themselves into space for fun. When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos told reporters after his first space tourism trip on Tuesday that Amazon customers and employees had “paid” for his flight, that only intensified that criticism.

But critics won’t deter Bezos and the other superrich. Space tourism is now a reality for the people who can afford it — and it will have repercussions for everyone on Earth.

In fact, all signs indicate that the market for these trips is already big enough that they’ll keep happening. Jeff Bezos’s spaceflight company Blue Origin already has two more trips scheduled later this year , while Virgin Galactic , the space firm founded by billionaire Richard Branson, has at least 600 people who have already paid around $250,000 each for future tickets on its spaceplane.

Now, as the commercial space tourism market (literally) gets off the ground, there are big questions facing future space travelers — and everyone else on the planet. Here are answers to the six biggest ones.

1. What will people actually be able to see and experience on a space trip?

The biggest perk of traveling to space is the view. Just past the boundary between space and Earth, passengers can catch a stunning glimpse of our planet juxtaposed against the wide unknown of space. If a passenger is riding on a Virgin Galactic flight, they will get about 53 miles above sea level. Blue Origin riders will get a little bit higher, about 62 miles above sea level and past the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary between Earth and space. Overall, the experience on both flights is pretty similar.

Welcome aboard #Unity22 , Virgin Galactic's first fully-crewed test flight. Watch the historic moment through the eyes of our mission specialists. pic.twitter.com/DEwbBkgJYl — Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) July 13, 2021

The view is meant to be awe-inducing, and the experience even has its own name: the Overview Effect . “​​When you see Earth from that high up, it changes your perspective on things and how interconnected we are and how we squander that here on Earth,” Wendy Whitman Cobb, a professor at the US Air Force’s School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, told Recode.

Another perk of these trips is that space tourists will feel a few minutes of microgravity, which is when gravity feels extremely weak . That will give them the chance to bounce around a spacecraft weightlessly before heading back to Earth.

But Blue Origin’s and Virgin Galactic’s flights are relatively brief — about 10 and 90 minutes long , respectively. Other space tourism flights from SpaceX, the space company founded by Elon Musk , will have more to offer. This fall, billionaire Jared Isaacman, who founded the company Shift4 Payments, will pilot SpaceX’s first all-civilian flight, the Inspiration4 , which will spend several days in orbit around Earth. In the coming years, the company has also planned private missions to the International Space Station, as well as a trip around the moon .

These trips are meant to be enjoyed by space nerds who longed to be astronauts. But there’s another reason rich people want to go to space: demonstrating exclusivity and conspicuous consumption. More than a few people can afford a trip to Venice or the Maldives. But how many people are privileged enough to take a trip to space?

“What a nice way of showing off these days than to post a picture on Instagram from space,” Sridhar Tayur, a Carnegie Mellon business professor, told Recode.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jeff Bezos (@jeffbezos)

2. Does commercial space travel have any scientific goals, or is it really just a joyride?

Right now, space tourism flights from Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin have only reached suborbital space , which means that flights enter space but do not enter orbit around Earth. Scientifically, that’s not a new frontier. Though these current flights use new technology, suborbital flight with humans aboard was accomplished by NASA back in the early 1960s , Matthew Hersch, a historian of technology at Harvard, told Recode.

Right now, it’s not clear these trips will offer scientists major new insights, but they might provide information that could be used in the future for space exploration. In fact, these trips are also being marketed as potential opportunities for scientific experiments. For instance, the most recent Virgin Galactic flight carried plants and tested how they responded to microgravity .

These private companies primarily see opportunities in their commercial vehicles that can be reused at scale, which will allow the same rockets (or in Virgin Galactic’s case, spaceplanes) to go to space again and again, which lowers the overall cost of space tourism.

Billionaires and their private space companies also see the development of these rockets as an opportunity to prepare for flights that will do even more, and go even farther, into space. Bezos, for instance, has argued that New Shepard’s suborbital flights will help prepare the company’s future missions, including its New Glenn rocket, which is meant for orbital space.

“The fact of the matter is, the architecture and the technology we have chosen is complete overkill for a suborbital tourism mission,” Bezos said at Tuesday’s post-launch briefing . “We have chosen the vertical landing architecture. Why did we do that? Because it scales.”

Beyond potential scientific advancements in the future, suborbital spaceflight might also create new ways to travel from one place on earth to another. SpaceX, for instance, has advertised that long-haul flights could be shortened to just 30 minutes by traveling through space.

3. Is it safe?

Right now, it’s not entirely clear just how risky space tourism is.

One way space tourism companies are trying to keep travelers safe is by requiring training so that the people who are taking a brief sojourn off Earth are as prepared as possible.

On the flight, people can experience intense altitude and G-forces. “This is sustained G-forces on your body, upwards of what can be 6 G in one direction — which is six times your body weight for upwards of 20 or 30 seconds,” Glenn King, the chief operating officer of the Nastar Center — the aerospace physiology training center that prepared Richard Branson for his flights — told Recode. “That’s a long time when you have six people, or your weight, pressing down on you.”

There’s also the chance that space tourists will be exposed to radiation, though that risk depends on how long you’re in space. “It’s a risk, especially more for the orbital flight than sub-orbital,” explains Whitman Cobb. “Going up in an airplane exposes you to a higher amount of radiation than you would get here on the ground.” She also warns that some tourists will likely barf on the ride.

There doesn’t seem to be an age limit on who can travel, though. The most recent Blue Origin flight included both the youngest person to ever travel to space, an 18-year-old Dutch teenager, as well as the oldest: 82-year-old pilot Wally Funk.

4. How much will tickets cost?

The leaders in commercial space tourism already claim they have a market to support the industry. While Bezos hinted on Tuesday the price would eventually come down — as eventually happened with the high prices of the nascent airline industry — for now, ticket prices are in the low hundreds of thousands, at least for Virgin Galactic . That price point would keep spaceflight out of reach for most of humanity, but there are enough interested rich people that space tourism seems to be economically feasible.

“If you bring it down to $250,000, the wait times [to buy a ticket] will be very long,” Tayur, of Carnegie Mellon, told Recode.

5. What impact will commercial space travel have on the environment?

The emissions of a flight to space can be worse than those of a typical airplane flight because just a few people hop aboard one of these flights, so the emissions per passenger are much higher. That pollution could become much worse if space tourism becomes more popular. Virgin Galactic alone eventually aims to launch 400 of these flights annually.

“The carbon footprint of launching yourself into space in one of these rockets is incredibly high, close to about 100 times higher than if you took a long-haul flight,” Eloise Marais , a physical geography professor at the University College London, told Recode. “It’s incredibly problematic if we want to be environmentally conscious and consider our carbon footprint.”

These flights’ effects on the environment will differ depending on factors like the fuel they use, the energy required to manufacture that fuel, and where they’re headed — and all these factors make it difficult to model their environmental impact. For instance, Jeff Bezos has argued that the liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel Blue Origin uses is less damaging to the environment than the other space competitors (technically, his flight didn’t release carbon dioxide ), but experts told Recode it could still have significant environmental effects .

There are also other risks we need to keep studying , including the release of soot that could hurt the stratosphere and the ozone. A study from 2010 found that the soot released by 1,000 space tourism flights could warm Antarctica by nearly 1 degree Celsius. “There are some risks that are unknown,” Paul Peeters, a tourism sustainability professor at the Breda University of Applied Sciences, told Recode. “We should do much more work to assess those risks and make sure that they do not occur or to alleviate them somehow — before you start this space tourism business.” Overall, he thinks the environmental costs are reason enough not to take such a trip.

6. Who is regulating commercial space travel?

Right now, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has generally been given the job of overseeing the commercial space industry. But regulation of space is still relatively meager.

One of the biggest areas of concern is licensing launches and making sure that space flights don’t end up hitting all the other flying vehicles humans launch into the sky, like planes and drones. Just this June, a SpaceX flight was held up after a helicopter flew into the zone of the launch.

There’s a lot that still needs to be worked out, especially as there are more of these launches. On Thursday, the Senate hosted a hearing with leaders of the commercial space industry focused on overseeing the growing amount of civil space traffic .

At the same time, the FAA is also overseeing a surging number of spaceports — essentially airports for spaceflight — and making sure there’s enough space for them to safely set up their launches.

But there are other areas where the government could step in. “I think the cybersecurity aspect will also play a very vital role, so that people don’t get hacked,” Tayur said. The FAA told Recode that the agency has participated in developing national principles for space cybersecurity, but Congress hasn’t given it a specific role in looking at the cybersecurity of space.

At some point, the government might also step in to regulate the environmental impact of these flights, too, but that’s not something the FAA currently has jurisdiction over.

In the meantime, no government agency is currently vetting these companies when it comes to the safety of the human passengers aboard. An FAA official confirmed with Recode that while the agency is awarding licenses to companies to carry humans to space , they’re not actually confirming that these trips are safe. That’s jurisdiction Congress won’t give the agency until 2023.

There doesn’t seem to be an abundance of travelers’ insurance policies for space. “Passengers basically sign that they’re waiving all their rights,” Whitman Cobb said. “You’re acknowledging that risk and doing it yourself right now.”

So fair warning, if you decide to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for a joyride to space: You’d likely have to accept all responsibility if you get hurt.

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The jaw-droppingly high, out-of-this-world carbon footprint of space tourism

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The commercial race to get tourists to space is heating up between Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson and former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. On July 11, Branson ascended 80 km (49 miles) to reach the edge of space in his piloted Virgin Galactic VSS Unity spaceplane, while Bezos’ autonomous Blue Origin rocket launched today on July 20 , coinciding with the anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Although Bezos launched later than Branson, he set out to reach higher altitudes — about 120 km, or 74 miles .

The launch demonstrates a new type of offering to very wealthy tourists: The opportunity to truly reach outer space. Tour packages will provide passengers with a brief 10-minute frolic in zero gravity and glimpses of Earth from space. Not to be outdone, later in 2021, Elon Musk’s SpaceX will provide four to five days of orbital travel with its Crew Dragon capsule.

What are the environmental consequences of a space tourism industry likely to be? Bezos boasts that his Blue Origin rockets are greener than Branson’s VSS Unity. The Blue Engine 3 (BE-3)  launched Bezos, his brother and two guests into space using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants.

VSS Unity, on the other hand, used a hybrid propellant comprised of a solid carbon-based fuel, hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB), and nitrous oxide (or laughing gas), while the SpaceX Falcon series of reusable rockets will propel the Crew Dragon into orbit using liquid kerosene and liquid oxygen.

Burning these propellants provides the energy needed to launch rockets into space — but it simultaneously generates greenhouse gases and air pollutants. Large quantities of water vapor are also produced by burning the BE-3 propellant, while combustion of both the VSS Unity and Falcon fuels produces CO2, soot and some water vapor. The nitrogen-based oxidant used by VSS Unity also generates nitrogen oxides, compounds that contribute to air pollution closer to Earth. Roughly two-thirds of this propellant exhaust is released into the stratosphere (12 km-50 km) and mesosphere (50 km-85 km), where it can persist for at least two to three years.

The very high temperatures during launch and re-entry (which is when the protective heat shields of the returning crafts burn up) also convert stable nitrogen in the air into reactive nitrogen oxides. These gases and particles have many negative effects on the atmosphere. In the stratosphere, nitrogen oxides and chemicals formed from the breakdown of water vapor convert ozone into oxygen and deplete the ozone layer which guards life on Earth against harmful UV radiation.

Water vapor also produces stratospheric clouds that provide a surface for this reaction to occur at a faster pace than it otherwise would.

Space tourism and climate change

What’s more, CO2 exhaust emissions and soot trap heat in the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. Cooling of the atmosphere can also occur, as clouds formed from the emitted water vapor reflect incoming sunlight back to space. A depleted ozone layer would also absorb less incoming sunlight, and so heat the stratosphere less.

Figuring out the overall effect of rocket launches on the atmosphere will require detailed modeling, in order to account for these complex processes and the persistence of these pollutants in the upper atmosphere. Equally important is a clear understanding of how the space tourism industry will develop.

Virgin Galactic anticipates it will offer 400 spaceflights each year to the privileged few who can afford them. Blue Origin and SpaceX have yet to announce their plans. But globally, rocket launches wouldn’t need to increase by much from the current 100 or so performed each year to induce harmful effects that are competitive with other sources , like ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and CO2 from aircraft.

During launch, rockets can emit between 4 and 10 times more nitrogen oxides than Drax , the largest thermal power plant in the UK, over the same time period. CO2 emissions for the four or so tourists on a space flight will be between 50 and 100 times more than the one to three tonnes of emissions that are generated per passenger on a long-haul airplane flight.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

What are the origins of spaceflight? It all started with science fiction. Watch the full Talk to learn more: 

About the author

Eloise Marais is an Associate Professor in Physical Geography at UCL. Marais leads a research group that addresses long-standing uncertainties about the chemical composition of the atmosphere and determines the influence of humans on the environment, air quality and climate.

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The Environmental Costs of the Space Tourism Business

On July 20, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, flew into space along with three other companions in one of Blue Origin’s human-rated capsules. Just nine days prior, Richard Branson boarded the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 Spaceflight, which blasted off into suborbital space for a few minutes. Both companies plan on selling commercial tickets to their spacecrafts soon. SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, plans to launch its first civilian mission in September 2021. While much of the world watched in awe as these billionaires soared into space, scientists worry that the rise and future of space tourism business could harm the Earth’s atmosphere and exacerbate the effects of climate change .  

What are the Environmental Consequences of Space Tourism Business and Space Pollution? 

Space exploration pollution has been gaining more attention in recent years and should not be ignored.  The spacecraft operated by Branson’s Virgin Galactic is powered by a hybrid engine .  These engines burn rubber and other fuels, and they generate a lot of soot. A space tourism flight, which lasts about an hour-and-a-half, generates as much pollution as a 10-hour trans-Atlantic flight. This raises concern considering Virgin Galactic’s ambitions to fly tourists several times a day. 

Small particles such as soot and aluminium oxides, can have a severe impact on the atmosphere. A 2010 research paper modelled the effects of soot injected into the atmosphere from a thousand private suborbital flights a year and found that it would increase the temperature over the poles by 1 degree Celsius and reduce polar sea ice levels by 5%. 

SpaceX plans on launching 395 flights in space annually. However, a single flight reportedly can generate a carbon footprint equivalent of 278 people combined . The fuel for its Falcon 9 engine consists of kerosene and liquid oxygen, which creates a lot of carbon dioxide when burnt. Holding 440 tonnes of fuel, SpaceX would release 4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per year if its plans of launching every two weeks are achieved. 

Bezos’ New Shepard, on the other hand, has been hailed as one of the cleanest in the industry . Combining liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to generate thrust, the main emissions would consist of mainly water, some minor combustion products, and only a little bit of carbon dioxide. But that does not mean these space flights are totally clean, and the further down the supply chain you look, the more concerns pop up. Large amounts of electricity is required to make liquid hydrogen and oxygen for the propellant, while water from the rocket exhausts can increase the number of clouds in the atmosphere, thereby, impacting the upper atmospheric layers. Since there have been too few rocket launches, they were not regarded as a concern in climate modelling. 

Too little is known about the impact of emitting pollutants in spaces where you would not normally emit . Though it is predicted that space tourism business will expand and increase exponentially in the coming years, with the amount of fuel burned by the space industry being less than 1%, it is unknown at which point rocket launches will start to have a considerable effect on the environment. 

While these billionaires pour billions of dollars to take part in this ego-fuelled race to space, more than two hundred people have died due to extreme flooding in Germany and Belgium , hundreds have lost their lives due to record breaking temperatures and wildfires in Canada , and many more fatalities due to other catastrophic disasters that have been intensifying around the world due to climate change.

You might also like: How to Make Deep Decarbonisation A Reality

Better Uses for Money Spent on Space Tourism Business

Bezos thanked his amazon staff who “paid for all of this”, which was understandably met by criticisms as Amazon workers are notoriously underpaid and forced to work in exploitative work environments such as resorting to using bottles instead of having the time to take even bathroom breaks. For roughly four minutes of weightlessness in space, Bezos had spent approximately US$5.5 billion. By redirecting these expenses, these are seven problems that could have been solved with Bezos’ space flight money: 

• Plant up to 5 billion trees, which only cost around $1 to $3 to plant.
• 37.5 million people could have been saved from starvation, and if each billionaire flying into space, Bezos, Musk, and Branson, committed $6 billion, 41 million people could have been prevented from starving this year. 
• Fully funded COVAX, securing vaccines for 2 billion people in low-income countries. Bezos could have funded their initiative, which needs approximately $2.6 billion, two times over in the time of a deadly pandemic instead of going to space. 
• Working with the United Nations, he could fund humanitarian efforts in Nigeria ($1 billion), the Democratic Republic of Congo ($2 billion), Afghanistan ($1.2 billion), Venezuela ($0.7 billion), Yemen and the horn of Africa ($0.6 billion).
• Fully funded the International Fund for Agricultural Development which is $350 million short of its fundraising goal. 
• Fully funded Education Cannot Wait, providing education to children displaced by crises, nearly three times over. 
• Helped countries invest in renewable energy, restore ecosystems, and make buildings more energy efficient.

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Projected increase in space travel may damage ozone layer

• June 21, 2022

Scientists from NOAA and The Aerospace Corp. modeled the climate response of the stratosphere to increased future emissions of black carbon from rockets burning kerosene fuel. Projected growth in rocket launches for space tourism, moon landings, and perhaps travel to Mars has many dreaming of a new era of space exploration. But a NOAA study suggests that a significant boost in spaceflight activity may damage the protective ozone layer on the one planet where we live.  Kerosene-burning rocket engines widely used by the global launch industry emit exhaust containing black carbon, or soot, directly into the stratosphere, where a layer of ozone protects all living things on the Earth from the harmful impacts of ultraviolet radiation, which include skin cancer and weakened immune systems in humans, as well as disruptions to agriculture and ecosystems.

According to new NOAA research published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, a 10-fold increase in hydrocarbon fueled launches, which is plausible within the next two decades based on recent trends in space traffic growth, would damage the ozone layer, and change atmospheric circulation patterns. “We need to learn more about the potential impact of hydrocarbon-burning engines on the stratosphere and on the climate at the surface of the Earth,” said lead author Christopher Maloney, a CIRES research scientist working in NOAA’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory. “With further research, we should be able to better understand the relative impacts of different rocket types on climate and ozone.” Launch rates have tripled  Launch rates have more than tripled in recent decades, Maloney said, and accelerated growth is anticipated in the coming decades. Rockets are the only direct source of human-produced aerosol pollution above the troposphere, the lowest region of the atmosphere, which extends to a height of about 5 to 10 miles above the Earth’s surface.  The research team used a climate model to simulate the impact of approximately 10,000 metric tons of soot pollution injected into the stratosphere over the northern hemisphere every year for 50 years. Currently,  an estimated 1,000 tons of rocket soot exhaust are emitted annually. The researchers caution that the exact amounts of soot emitted by the different hydrocarbon fueled engines used around the globe are poorly understood.  The researchers found that this level of activity would increase annual temperatures in the stratosphere by 0.5 – 2° Celsius or approximately 1-4°Farenheit, which would change global circulation patterns by slowing the subtropical jet streams as much as 3.5%, and weakening the stratospheric overturning circulation. 

Stratospheric ozone is strongly influenced by temperature and atmospheric circulation, noted co-author Robert Portmann, a research physicist with the Chemical Sciences Laboratory, so it was no surprise to the research team that the model found changes in stratospheric temperatures and winds also caused changes in the abundance of ozone. The scientists found ozone reductions occurred poleward of 30 degrees North, or roughly the latitude of Houston, in nearly all months of the year. The maximum reduction of 4% occurred at the North Pole in June. All other locations north of 30° N experienced at least some reduced ozone throughout the year. This spatial pattern of ozone loss directly coincides with the modeled distribution of black carbon and the warming associated with it, Maloney said.  “The bottom line is projected increases in rocket launches could expose people in the Northern Hemisphere to increased harmful UV radiation,” Maloney said.  The research team also simulated two larger emission scenarios of 30,000 and 100,000 tons of soot pollution per year to better understand the impacts of an extremely large increase in future space travel using hydrocarbon-fueled engines, and more clearly investigate the feedbacks that determine the atmosphere’s response. Results showed that the stratosphere is sensitive to relatively modest black carbon injections. The larger emission simulations showed a similar, yet more severe disruptions of atmospheric circulation and climate loss  than the 10,000 metric ton case.

Building a research foundation The study built on previous research by members of the author team. A 2010 study led by co-author Martin Ross, a scientist with The Aerospace Corporation, first explored the climate impact of an increase in soot-producing rocket launches. A second study performed at NOAA in 2017, on which Ross was a co-author, examined the climate response to water vapor emissions from a proposed reusable space launch system utilizing cleaner hydrogen-fueled rockets. “Our work emphasizes the importance of ozone depletion caused by soot particles emitted by liquid-fueled rockets,” Ross said. “These simulations change the long-held belief that spaceflight’s only threat to the ozone layer was from solid-fueled rockets. We’ve shown that particles are where the action is for spaceflight’s impacts.”   While the new research describes the influence that soot in rocket exhaust has on the climate and composition of the stratosphere, the scientists said it represents an initial step in understanding the spectrum of impacts on the stratosphere from increased space flight.   Combustion emissions from the different rocket types will need to be evaluated, they said.  Soot and other particles generated by satellites burning up when they fall out of orbit is also a growing, poorly understood source of emissions in the middle-to-upper atmosphere. These and other topics will need further research to produce a complete picture of space industry emissions and their impacts on Earth’s climate and ozone.   The study was supported by NOAA’s Earth’s Radiation Budget initiative. For more information, contact Monica Allen, NOAA Research Director of Public Affairs at [email protected] or 202-379-6693.

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Space Tourism Poses a Significant ‘Risk to the Climate’

Rockets launched by billionaires elon musk and richard branson emit black carbon in the stratosphere, where it is 500 times worse for the climate than it is on earth. billionaire jeff bezos’ rockets burn liquid hydrogen and oxygen and pose a lesser climate threat..

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New Study Says World Must Cut Short-Lived Climate Pollutants as Well as Carbon Dioxide to Meet Paris Agreement Goals

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Coal Mining Emits More Super-Polluting Methane Than Venting and Flaring From Gas and Oil Wells, a New Study Finds

The burgeoning space tourism industry could soon fuel significant global warming while also depleting the protective ozone layer that is crucial for sustaining life on Earth, a new study concludes.  The findings , published Saturday in Earth’s Future, raise additional concerns about the “billionaire space race” fueled by some of the world’s richest men.

A key focus of the study was emissions of black carbon, or soot, from the combustion of rocket fuel. Black carbon, which comes from burning fossil fuels or biomass, absorbs light from the sun and releases thermal energy, making it a powerful climate warming agent.  At lower altitudes black carbon quickly falls from the sky, remaining in the atmosphere for only a matter of days or weeks.

However, as rockets blast into space, they emit black carbon into the stratosphere where it remains, absorbing sunlight and radiating heat, for up to four years before falling back down to Earth. Black carbon emitted in the stratosphere is nearly 500 times worse for the climate than similar emission on or near the surface of the earth, the study found. Black carbon emissions from all space flights are currently relatively low but could quickly increase if projections for the growth of space tourism prove correct.

“A big ramp up in the number of space launches, which is hoped for by the space tourism industry, poses a risk to the climate by adding black carbon particles to the upper atmosphere and as a result, we should think very carefully about regulating this industry before it gets out of hand,” Robert Ryan, a researcher at University College London and the study’s lead author, said. “It would be a real shame for humanity to look back in 50 or 100 years when we’ve got thousands of rocket launches a year and think, ‘If only we’d done something.’”

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To calculate the impact of spaceflights, Ryan and colleagues produced an inventory of all pollutants released from the 103 rockets launched worldwide in 2019, as well as data on the re-entry of reusable rockets and space junk descending back into Earth’s atmosphere.

The researchers then plugged the emissions data into atmospheric chemistry and heat transfer models to determine their impact on ozone depletion and climate change. They also included recent projections of anticipated flights by space tourism companies Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and SpaceX to plot potential future emissions from the industry.

After just three years of more than once-a-day rocket launches, space tourism would account for 6 percent of warming due to black carbon emissions despite contributing just 0.02 percent of global black carbon emissions, the study concluded.  

The study also found that rockets deplete the Earth’s atmospheric ozone layer, which protects the planet from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Rockets that burn solid, chlorine-based fuels harm ozone by releasing chlorine, which destroys ozone, directly into the stratosphere. Chlorine-containing chemicals, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), were banned under the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement to protect atmospheric ozone that was adopted in 1987. Solid fuel rockets were not part of the ban.

Regardless of the fuel type used, all rockets contributed to additional ozone depletion through the emissions of nitrogen oxides upon re-entry into the stratosphere.     

A second study that also looked at the climate and ozone impacts of rocket launches and was published earlier this month, came to similar conclusions. The study , published in JGR Atmospheres, projected that increased emissions from space tourism would also disrupt global atmospheric circulation, slowing the transport of air from the tropics to the poles in the upper atmosphere.

This decrease in circulation would result in a slight reduction of atmospheric ozone concentrations in the northern hemisphere, said Christopher Maloney, the study’s lead author and a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“Anytime you see anything that impacts ozone, it’s worthy of further investigation,” he said.

Stephen Andersen, research director for the Washington-based Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, said the recent studies further the climate and ozone concerns related to rocket launches that NASA scientists first raised nearly half a century ago.

“Over the last 45 years, they came to the same conclusion,” Andersen said of research done by NASA and others. “Current emissions are not a significant source, but they would be incredibly significant if the projections of space flights prove true.”

By one measure, public opinion turned against space tourism last year as some of the world’s most wealthy individuals blasted into space amid an ever-warming climate and the ongoing Covid pandemic.  

U.S. spaceflight company Virgin Galactic, which was founded by British billionaire Richard Branson and hopes to offer 400 flights per year from its “spaceport” in New Mexico, did not respond to a request for comment.

But, the company appears to be aware of the climate concerns posed by space tourism. In its most recent annual financial report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Virgin Galactic stated that the company “may be adversely affected by global climate change or by legal, regulatory or market responses to such change.”

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Blue Origin, the space tourism company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, envisions “millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth.” 

Company executives did not respond to a request for comment. Blue Origin’s rockets burn liquid hydrogen and oxygen and emit water vapor and nitrogen oxides, but not black carbon. Emissions from hydrogen fuel rockets in the upper atmosphere pose less of a threat than other rocket types, but emissions of nitrogen oxides in the stratosphere and the emissions that go into producing liquid hydrogen on earth are still a concern, Ryan said.  

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and the world’s richest person, tweeted in December that SpaceX plans to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and turn it into rocket fuel. Musk is also funding a $100 million prize for the development of carbon removal . While many seek to turn CO2 into fuel, such efforts remain unproven. Rockets that burn fuel derived from carbon dioxide would also likely result in emissions of black carbon and nitrogen oxides in the upper atmosphere.

Andersen said efforts to reduce emissions are helpful but international regulations are needed to curb climate and ozone threats posed by increased commercial space flights.

“They need to think before they act and they ought to consider all the options of minimizing the impact,” he said. “Then the final decision over whether it’s worthwhile to society to allow this enterprise should be made in some kind of a governance way.”

Phil McKenna

Reporter, boston.

Phil McKenna is a Boston-based reporter for Inside Climate News. Before joining ICN in 2016, he was a freelance writer covering energy and the environment for publications including The New York Times, Smithsonian, Audubon and WIRED. Uprising, a story he wrote about gas leaks under U.S. cities, won the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award and the 2014 NASW Science in Society Award. Phil has a master’s degree in science writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was an Environmental Journalism Fellow at Middlebury College.

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The Future of Space Tourism Is Now. Well, Not Quite.

From zero-pressure balloon trips to astronaut boot camps, reservations for getting off the planet — or pretending to — are skyrocketing. The prices, however, are still out of this world.

By Debra Kamin

Ilida Alvarez has dreamed of traveling to space since she was a child. But Ms. Alvarez, a legal-mediation firm owner, is afraid of flying, and she isn’t a billionaire — two facts that she was sure, until just a few weeks ago, would keep her fantasy as out of reach as the stars. She was wrong.

Ms. Alvarez, 46, and her husband, Rafael Landestoy, recently booked a flight on a 10-person pressurized capsule that — attached to a massive helium-filled balloon — will gently float to 100,000 feet while passengers sip champagne and recline in ergonomic chairs. The reservation required a $500 deposit; the flight itself will cost $50,000 and last six to 12 hours.

“I feel like it was tailor-made for the chickens like me who don’t want to get on a rocket,” said Ms. Alvarez, whose flight, organized by a company called World View , is scheduled to depart from the Grand Canyon in 2024.

Less than a year after Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson kicked off a commercial space race by blasting into the upper atmosphere within weeks of each other last summer, the global space tourism market is skyrocketing, with dozens of companies now offering reservations for everything from zero-pressure balloon trips to astronaut boot camps and simulated zero-gravity flights. But don’t don your spacesuit just yet. While the financial services company UBS estimates the space travel market will be worth $3 billion by 2030, the Federal Aviation Administration has yet to approve most out-of-this-world trips, and construction has not started on the first space hotel. And while access and options — not to mention launchpads — are burgeoning, space tourism remains astronomically expensive for most.

First, what counts as space travel?

Sixty miles (about 100 kilometers) above our heads lies the Kármán line, the widely accepted aeronautical boundary of the earth’s atmosphere. It’s the boundary used by the Féderátion Aéronautique Internationale, which certifies and controls global astronautical records. But many organizations in the United States, including the F.A.A. and NASA, define everything above 50 miles to be space.

Much of the attention has been focused on a trio of billionaire-led rocket companies: Mr. Bezos’ Blue Origin , whose passengers have included William Shatner; Mr. Branson’s Virgin Galactic , where tickets for a suborbital spaceflight start at $450,000; and Elon Musk’s SpaceX , which in September launched an all-civilian spaceflight, with no trained astronauts on board. Mr. Branson’s inaugural Virgin Galactic flight in 2021 reached about 53 miles, while Blue Origin flies above the 62-mile mark. Both are eclipsed by SpaceX, whose rockets charge far deeper in to the cosmos, reaching more than 120 miles above Earth.

Balloons, like those operated by World View, don’t go nearly as high. But even at their maximum altitude of 18 or 19 miles, operators say they float high enough to show travelers the curvature of the planet, and give them a chance to experience the overview effect — an intense perspective shift that many astronauts say kicks in when you view Earth from above.

Now, how to get there …

Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, which are both licensed for passenger space travel by the F.A.A., are open for ticket sales. (Blue Origin remains mum on pricing.) Both companies currently have hundreds or even thousands of earthlings on their wait lists for a whirl to the edge of space. SpaceX charges tens of millions of dollars for its further-reaching flights and is building a new facility in Texas that is currently under F.A.A. review.

Craig Curran is a major space enthusiast — he’s held a reserved seat on a Virgin Galactic flight since 2011 — and the owner of Deprez Travel in Rochester, N.Y. The travel agency has a special space travel arm, Galactic Experiences by Deprez , through which Mr. Curran sells everything from rocket launch tickets to astronaut training.

Sales in the space tourism space, Mr. Curran acknowledges, “are reasonably difficult to make,” and mostly come from peer-to-peer networking. “You can imagine that people who spend $450,000 to go to space probably operate in circles that are not the same as yours and mine,” he said.

Some of Mr. Curran’s most popular offerings include flights where you can experience the same stomach-dropping feeling of zero gravity that astronauts feel in space, which he arranges for clients via chartered, specialized Boeing 727s that are flown in parabolic arcs to mimic being in space. Operators including Zero G also offer the service; the cost is around $8,200.

You can almost count the number of completed space tourist launches on one hand — Blue Origin has had four; SpaceX, two. Virgin Galactic, meanwhile, on Thursday announced the launch of its commercial passenger service, previously scheduled for late 2022, was delayed until early 2023. Many of those on waiting lists are biding their time before blastoff by signing up for training. Axiom Space, which contracts with SpaceX, currently offers NASA-partnered training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. Virgin Galactic, which already offers a “customized Future Astronaut Readiness program” at its Spaceport America facility in New Mexico, is also partnering with NASA to build a training program for private astronauts.

Would-be space tourists should not expect the rigor that NASA astronauts face. Training for Virgin Galactic’s three-hour trips is included in the cost of a ticket and lasts a handful of days; it includes pilot briefings and being “fitted for your bespoke Under Armour spacesuit and boots,” according to its website.

Not ready for a rocket? Balloon rides offer a less hair-raising celestial experience.

“We go to space at 12 miles an hour, which means that it’s very smooth and very gentle. You’re not rocketing away from earth,” said Jane Poynter, a co-founder and co-chief executive of Space Perspective , which is readying its own touristic balloon spaceship, Spaceship Neptune. If all goes according to plan, voyages are scheduled to begin departing from Florida in 2024, at a cost of $125,000 per person. That’s a fraction of the price tag for Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, but still more than double the average annual salary of an American worker.

Neither Space Perspective nor World View has the required approval yet from the F.A.A. to operate flights.

Unique implications

Whether a capsule or a rocket is your transport, the travel insurance company battleface launched a civilian space insurance plan in late 2021, a direct response, said chief executive Sasha Gainullin, to an increase in space tourism interest and infrastructure. Benefits include accidental death and permanent disablement in space and are valid for spaceflights on operators like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, as well as on stratospheric balloon rides. They’ve had many inquiries, Mr. Gainullin said, but no purchases just yet.

“Right now it’s such high-net-worth individuals who are traveling to space, so they probably don’t need insurance,” he said. “But for quote-unquote regular travelers, I think we’ll see some takeups soon.”

And as the industry grows, so perhaps will space travel’s impact on the environment. Not only do rocket launches have immense carbon footprints, even some stratospheric balloon flights have potentially significant implications: World View’s balloons are powered by thousands of cubic meters of helium, which is a limited resource . But Ted Parson, a professor of environmental law at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that space travel’s environmental impact is still dwarfed by civil aviation. And because space travel is ultra-niche, he believes it’s likely to stay that way.

“Despite extensive projections, space tourism is likely to remain a tiny fraction of commercial space exploration,” he said. “It reminds me of tourism on Mt. Everest. It’s the indulgence of very rich people seeking a transcendent, once-in-a-lifetime experience, and the local environmental burden is intense.”

Stay a while?

In the future, space enthusiasts insist, travelers won’t be traveling to space just for the ride. They’ll want to stay a while. Orbital Assembly Corporation, a manufacturing company whose goal is to colonize space, is currently building the world’s first space hotels — two ring-shaped properties that will orbit Earth, called Pioneer Station and Voyager Station. The company, quite optimistically, projects an opening date of 2025 for Pioneer Station, with a capacity of 28 guests. The design for the larger Voyager Station , which they say will open in 2027, promises villas and suites, as well as a gym, restaurant and bar. Both provide the ultimate luxury: simulated gravity. Axiom Space , a space infrastructure company, is currently building the world’s first private space station; plans include Philippe Starck-designed accommodations for travelers to spend the night.

Joshua Bush, chief executive of travel agency Avenue Two Travel , has sold a handful of seats on upcoming Virgin Galactic flights to customers. The market for space travel (and the sky-high prices that come with it), he believes, will evolve much like civilian air travel did.

“In the beginning of the 20th century, only very affluent people could afford to fly,” he said. “Just as we have Spirit and Southwest Airlines today, there will be some sort of equivalent of that in space travel, too. Hopefully within my lifetime.”

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Space tourism to accelerate climate change

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Space travel is open for business, but what about the environmental impact?

Billionaire Sir Richard Branson rocketing to space on his Virgin Galactic winged rocket ship was another step in the beginnings of what some see as a significant new era of space exploration – space tourism.

But the promise of a future with regular launches carrying private citizens into orbit and beyond also comes with concerns about the environmental impact of all those rocket launches, including their potential carbon footprints and the impact of elements they will deposit in the upper atmosphere.

It’s an issue that hasn’t garnered much attention in the past, likely because the amount of emissions from factories, cars, jet airplanes and various other sources is currently much more significant than from space rockets. In 2020, for instance, there were 114 attempted orbital launches in the world, according to NASA. That compares to the airline industry’s more than 100,000 flights each day on average, according to flightradar24.com.

But the new version of the space race, one in which Branson’s Virgin Galactic is just one of several private players, opens the door to a massive expansion in the number of launches that researchers are struggling to wrap their heads around, says Eloise Marais, an associate professor of physical geography at University College London who is currently conducting research on pollutant emissions from rocket launches.

“It’s really hard to know how much the space sector is going to grow in the future,” she told CTVNews.ca in an interview.

While many might assume that the biggest environmental threat from increased space travel is from higher greenhouse gas emissions, Marais’ research is focused on an area some see as a more significant threat, which is the potential damage to the ozone layer, which helps shield the Earth from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation.

Fears about damage to the ozone layer from chlorofluorocarbons in aerosol sprays and air conditioners prompted a phasing out of their use starting in the late 1980s. But Marais’ research, which is still in progress, shows the potential for damage to the layer from the enormous amounts of fuel rockets use to get them to the speeds necessary to reach space.

“A rocket is very high energy, very high temperature and so it emits things like nitrogen oxides which once released directly into the stratosphere can contribute to depleting ozone,” says Marais.

While launch systems such as the Russian Soyuz craft that currently ferries astronauts to and from the International Space Station, as well as Elon Musk’s SpaceX vehicle, use liquid rocket fuel, there are even more destructive effects from systems that use solid fuel, such as Virgin Galactic, says Marais.

“Solid rocket fuel is really the worst,” she said. “They produce a lot of chlorine, a lot of nitrogen oxides and those are quite efficient at depleting ozone.”

She isn’t the first researcher to point to the potential threat to the ozone layer from space flight.

“While there are a number of environmental impacts resulting from the launch of space vehicles, the depletion of stratospheric ozone is the most studied and most immediately concerning,” Jessica Dallas, currently a senior policy advisor at the New Zealand Space Agency, wrote in an analysis of research on space launch emissions published last year in the Journal of Cleaner Production.

In a separate report from 2019, authors Martin Ross and James Vedda of research firm The Aerospace Corporation, wrote that the current concerns about rocket emissions are similar to early concerns about space debris, which have since become an acknowledged threat to the space industry.

“Today, launch vehicle emissions present a distinctive echo of the space debris problem. Rocket engine exhaust emitted into the stratosphere during ascent to orbit adversely impacts the global atmosphere,” they wrote.

They point both to the threat to the ozone layer from chlorine emissions, and also to the potential threat of particles such as soot and alumina expelled from rockets into the upper atmosphere which can absorb and reflect solar energy, and change the temperature of both the upper atmosphere and the Earth’s surface. The possible heating of the upper atmosphere from this can also damage the ozone layer.

Marais said she hopes her research can help guide future space industry regulation that may become necessary as the space tourism industry expands.

“We essentially want to advocate against the use of solid rocket fuel. Because the space sector is inevitably going to grow, but we certainly want it to grow more responsibly,” she said.

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There’s No Way to Make Space Travel Good for Planet Earth Right Now

S paceX has never been reluctant to brag, especially when it comes to its celebrated Falcon 9 rocket. Since 2010, as a company toteboard shows, 217 Falcon 9s have flown, with 61 launches in 2022 alone, making it the workhorse of the current global space fleet. So what’s not to like? Plenty, actually—at least if you care about the environment.

The Falcon 9 uses a fuel mixture of liquid oxygen and simple kerosene, and while the oxygen does not do any harm to the skies, the black soot created by the burning kerosene is injected directly into the stratosphere—the layer of air ranging from 12 km (7.5 mi.) to 50 km (31 mi.) above the Earth. There the soot lingers for up to five years , absorbing heat, contributing to climate change, and damaging the ozone layer, which exposes the planet to dangerous ultraviolet (UV) radiation. And SpaceX is not remotely alone.

According to a study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), global rocket launches (of which there were 180 last year, the study notes) inject about 1,000 tons of soot into the upper atmosphere per year. That will only get worse, NOAA warns, as the industry continues to expand. “The bottom line is projected increases in rocket launches could expose people in the Northern Hemisphere [where most rocket launches take place] to increased harmful UV radiation,” environmental scientist Christopher Maloney, the study’s lead author, said in a statement .

By themselves, rocket launches are small contributors to overall atmospheric pollutants. The aviation industry burns 100 times more fuel each year than all of the rockets launched globally combined. But there is a key atmospheric difference: airplanes fly in the troposphere about 11 km (6.6 mi.) above the ground. Soot precipitates quickly from this range compared to stratospheric soot which sticks around much longer. Indeed, according to the NOAA report, a single passenger aboard a rocket is responsible for 100 times more climate-changing pollution than a passenger aboard an airplane.

Not only does all of this warm the planet and damage the ozone, the NOAA scientists warn, but the change in temperatures can also slow subtropical jet streams , worsening summer monsoons in Africa and India. “We need to learn more about the potential impact of hydrocarbon-burning engines on the stratosphere and on the climate at the surface of the Earth,” said Maloney.

A version of this story also appears in the Climate is Everything newsletter. To sign up, click here .

The type of fuel used in the rockets can make a difference. SpaceX’s massive, 33-engine Starship spacecraft , for example, uses methane in place of kerosene. While methane is a powerful greenhouse gas by itself, it does burn cleaner than kerosene, putting out less black soot. Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket is cleaner still, burning liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, and producing only water vapor as an exhaust—water vapor in the upper atmosphere still traps and retains heat, but not nearly as much as black soot, methane, or carbon dioxide do.

None of this means that the private rocket industry or growing space powers like China, India, and the United Arab Emirates—to say nothing of the U.S.—will be slowing down their launch schedules or becoming less pollution-intensive any time soon. Indeed, NASA’s new Space Launch System moon rocket, which first launched in November 2022, is an especially dirty machine. While it uses a liquid oxygen-hydrogen mix in its four main engines, its two attached solid fuel engines, which account for most of the vehicle’s thrust, produce the ozone-damaging pollutant chlorine.

The thriving space industry is typically seen as a boon for both the economy and for human exploration—and it is. But the launching of a monster rocket—with monster exhaust—like SpaceX’s anticipated Starship is a reminder that there can be too much of a good thing. If we keep increasing not just the size of rockets but the number of launches, we do so at a price; and as with so many other things, it is the climate that pays.

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Write to Jeffrey Kluger at [email protected]

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June 25, 2022

Climate damage caused by growing space tourism needs urgent mitigation

by University College London

Published today in the journal Earth's Future , researchers from UCL, the University of Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used a 3D model to explore the impact of rocket launches and re-entry in 2019, and the impact of projected space tourism scenarios based on the recent billionaire space race.

The team found that black carbon (soot) particles emitted by rockets are almost 500 times more efficient at holding heat in the atmosphere than all other sources of soot combined (surface and aircraft)—resulting in an enhanced climate effect.

Furthermore, while the study revealed that the current loss of total ozone due to rockets is small, current growth trends around space tourism indicate potential for future depletion of the upper stratospheric ozone layer in the Arctic in spring. This is because pollutants from solid-fuel rockets and re-entry heating of returning spacecraft and debris are particularly harmful to stratospheric ozone.

Study co-author Dr. Eloise Marais (UCL Geography) said: "Rocket launches are routinely compared to greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions from the aircraft industry, which we demonstrate in our work is erroneous.

"Soot particles from rocket launches have a much larger climate effect than aircraft and other Earth-bound sources, so there doesn't need to be as many rocket launches as international flights to have a similar impact. What we really need now is a discussion amongst experts on the best strategy for regulating this rapidly growing industry."

To calculate the findings, the researchers collected information on the chemicals from all 103 rocket launches in 2019 from across the world, as well as data on reusable rocket and space junk re-entry. They also used the recent demonstrations by space tourism entrepreneurs Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and SpaceX and proposed yearly offerings of at least daily launches by Virgin Galactic to construct a scenario of a future formidable space tourism industry.

These data were then incorporated into a 3D atmospheric chemistry model to explore the impact on climate and the ozone layer.

The team show that warming due to soot is 3.9 mW m-2 from a decade of contemporary rockets, dominated by emissions from kerosene-fuelled rockets. However, this more than doubles (7.9 mW m-2) after just three years of additional emissions from space tourism launches, due to the use of kerosene by SpaceX and hybrid synthetic rubber fuels by Virgin Galactic.

The researchers say this is of particular concern, as when the soot particles are directly injected into the upper atmosphere , they have a much greater effect on climate than other soot sources—with the particles 500 times more efficient at retaining heat.

The team found that, under a scenario of daily or weekly space tourism rocket launches, the impact on the stratospheric ozone layer threatens to undermine the recovery experienced after the successful implementation of the Montreal Protocol.

Adopted in 1987, the Montreal Protocol global ban on substances that deplete the ozone layer is considered one of the most successful international environmental policy interventions.

Study co-author Dr. Robert Ryan said: "The only part of the atmosphere showing strong ozone recovery post-Montreal Protocol is the upper stratosphere, and that is exactly where the impact of rocket emissions will hit hardest. We weren't expecting to see ozone changes of this magnitude, threatening the progress of ozone recovery.

"There is still a lot we need to find out about the influence of rocket launch and re-entry emissions on the atmosphere—in particular, the future size of the industry and the types and by-products of new fuels like liquid methane and bio-derived fuels.

"This study allows us to enter the new era of space tourism with our eyes wide open to the potential impacts. The conversation about regulating the environmental impact of the space launch industry needs to start now so we can minimize harm to the stratospheric ozone layer and climate."

Journal information: Earth's Future

Provided by University College London

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The Satellites Podcast

The Final Frontier: Weighing the Benefits and Drawbacks of Space Tourism

Are you ready to boldly go where few have gone before? Space tourism promises to be the ultimate adventure for thrill-seekers and astronomy enthusiasts alike. From seeing the Earth from space to experiencing zero gravity, the prospect of space travel is an exciting one.

But with any new technology, there are always drawbacks to consider, particularly for something as risky as strapping yourself to a rocket and leaving the planet’s atmosphere. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at the pros and cons of space tourism, and weigh up whether it’s really worth the risk.

But before we explore its benefits, let’s consider the drawbacks of space tourism.

As humanity continues to push the boundaries of exploration, one exciting concept that gains increasing attention is space tourism. However, while the idea of traveling beyond Earth’s atmosphere may seem exhilarating, it’s important to weigh the potential benefits against the drawbacks of space tourism.

On the one hand, space tourism could offer numerous benefits, including inspiring innovation and scientific discovery, driving new economic opportunities, and providing an unforgettable experience to those who embark on such a journey. On the other hand, there are significant drawbacks of space tourism that must be considered, including the high cost of entry, the potential environmental impact, and the risks to human safety.

While the idea of looking into the vast unknown is appealing, it’s vital that we take a close look at the full picture before we jump aboard this new frontier.

Table of Contents

Introduction to Space Tourism

Advantages of space tourism, economic benefits of space tourism, technological advances from space tourism, environmental concerns of space tourism, health and safety risks of space tourism, ethical considerations of space tourism, conclusion and future of space tourism, exploring the pros and cons of space tourism with the satellites podcast.

As humans, we have always looked up at the stars with wonder and curiosity. The idea of space travel has been a focus of science fiction for generations, but what was once a figment of our imagination is now becoming a reality – thanks to space tourism.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, space tourism is exactly what it sounds like – tourists traveling to space for recreational or leisure purposes. With advancements in technology, space travel has become a possibility for those with deep pockets and a sense of adventure.

Space tourism could be the pinnacle experience that travelers search for – the ultimate exploration of the unknown. But as the space tourism industry grows, there are concerns and drawbacks to be weighed.

While it allows the wealthy to experience space, the high cost limits accessibility to all but the richest individuals. Additionally, the environmental impact of space tourism must be considered.

Launching rockets and other vehicles could harm the already fragile balance of our planet’s atmosphere. As we continue to debate the benefits and drawbacks of space tourism, we must also look ahead to the future of space travel.

Will it remain reserved for the elite, or will advances in technology allow for more widespread access? Regardless of the outcome, the concept of space tourism will continue to captivate our imaginations as we explore the final frontier.

Exploring Outer Space has long been a fascination of many, and only a select few have had the opportunity to venture beyond our planet. However, with the rise of space tourism, more people than ever before may soon have the chance to experience what it’s like to be an astronaut.

One of the primary benefits of Space Tourism is the potential for scientific research. As more and more people are able to travel to space, researchers can gather a wealth of data that was previously limited to only a handful of astronauts.

This new data could lead to breakthrough discoveries in fields like astronomy, physics, and biology.Another advantage of Space Tourism is the economic boost it could provide.

The industry has the potential to not only create jobs but also drive technological advancements and innovations that could benefit industries beyond just space-related ones.Moreover, space tourism could inspire a new generation of people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

As more people become interested in space exploration and the possibilities it holds, they may be motivated to invest their time and energy into learning the skills required to become astronauts, engineers, and scientists.However, it’s not all smooth sailing when it comes to Space Tourism.

One major drawback is the potential risks involved. Space travel is inherently hazardous, and even with the best safety measures in place, accidents can happen.

Furthermore, the environmental impact of space tourism could be significant, as rockets and other space travel equipment can release harmful emissions into the atmosphere.Overall, exploring Outer Space has enormous potential to benefit us in myriad ways.

However, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons and consider the impacts of our actions as we move forward with this exciting frontier.

Space tourism has been a hot topic in recent years. Many people dream of traveling to space and experiencing the weightlessness and breathtaking views that only a select few have been able to witness.

While there are many potential benefits to space tourism, there are also some significant drawbacks that need to be considered. One of the key benefits of space tourism is the potential economic impact.

It’s estimated that the space tourism industry could be worth billions of dollars within the next decade.However, the cost of space tourism may be a barrier to entry for many.

Currently, the cost to travel to space is prohibitively high for all but a handful of ultra-wealthy individuals. For example, a trip to the International Space Station costs around $35,000 per night.

This means that only the wealthiest people in the world will be able to afford a trip to space in the near future.Despite these high costs, there are some potential economic benefits to space tourism.

For example, space tourism could create new jobs in the aerospace industry and stimulate economic growth in areas that are involved in space travel. Additionally, space tourism could lead to advancements in technology that could have applications beyond the tourism industry.

Ultimately, the cost of space tourism is a significant factor that needs to be considered when weighing the benefits and drawbacks of this new industry. While there are some potential economic benefits, the cost may be too high for the majority of people to participate in space tourism in the near future.

However, as technology advances and costs are reduced, it’s possible that space tourism could become more accessible for a wider range of people.

As the prospect of space tourism edges closer to reality, many people are left wondering if the benefits of indulging in this unique experience outweigh the potential drawbacks. While there are certainly risks associated with venturing beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, there are also several technological advances that could emerge from the pursuit of space tourism.

One major benefit of space tourism is the potential for scientific advancements. Spacecraft used for tourism purposes may also carry equipment and resources, allowing scientists to conduct research and experiments in space that would not be possible with current technology.

This could lead to breakthroughs in a variety of fields, including medicine, engineering, and more.Moreover, the advancements made in creating and operating spacecraft for tourists may lead to more efficient and cost-effective methods of space travel.

The experience gained from transporting passengers safely and efficiently to space could translate into improved technology and infrastructure for future space missions.However, it is important to acknowledge the potential drawbacks of space tourism as well.

The risk of accidents or malfunctions cannot be ignored, particularly when taking civilians into space. Additionally, there is the ethical question of whether or not space tourism is a justifiable use of resources when there are still so many problems to solve here on Earth.

Ultimately, whether or not space tourism is worth it depends on one’s perspective and priorities. While it may provide benefits in terms of scientific advancements and technological innovation, it is also important to consider the potential risks and ethical concerns involved.

Only time will tell if the benefits of space tourism will truly outweigh the drawbacks.

Space Travel has always been an object of fascination for humankind. However, with recent advancements in technology and a growing interest in commercial space travel, the idea of Space Tourism has become a popular topic of discussion.

When it comes to considering the benefits and drawbacks of Space Tourism, one cannot ignore the environmental concerns that come along with it. The carbon footprint of building and launching a spacecraft, as well as the emissions that will be produced during flights, are some of the primary concerns.

In addition, Space Tourism could raise concerns about the impact of waste produced during space travel on the pristine environment of space. Since space lacks the necessary resources to support human life, waste management in space is a significant challenge.

However, proponents of Space Tourism argue that the technological innovations and advancements made during the development of this industry could aid environmental conservation. For instance, the development of reusable rockets could usher in an era of more sustainable space operations.

Furthermore, as more people gain access to Space Travel, the understanding of the importance of preserving our planet’s natural resources could increase. This, in turn, could lead to greater public support for conservation efforts.

In conclusion, the environmental concerns surrounding Space Tourism are valid, and they should not be overlooked. However, with proper planning and implementation, Space Tourism could also bring about significant benefits for sustainability both on Earth and in space.

When it comes to commercial space travel, the concept of health and safety risks is certainly one of the most talked-about topics. After all, space is a dangerous place, and taking tourists into space is a risky affair.

But what exactly are these risks, and how do they compare to the benefits of space tourism?Firstly, there are the physical risks associated with space travel. The human body is not designed to survive in the harsh environment of space, and there are a number of health issues that can arise as a result.

These can range from minor problems like nausea and motion sickness to more serious issues like radiation exposure and bone density loss. However, with proper training and preparation, many of these risks can be mitigated or avoided altogether.

In addition to physical risks, there are also financial risks to consider. The cost of launching a spacecraft is exorbitant, and if something goes wrong during a commercial space travel mission, it could have huge financial repercussions for the company involved.

Despite these risks, many experts argue that the benefits of space tourism far outweigh the drawbacks. For one thing, space tourism could help to spark a new era of space exploration, and could lead to advances in technology and innovation that could benefit humanity as a whole.

Ultimately, the decision of whether or not to pursue commercial space travel is a complex one that requires careful consideration of all the risks and benefits involved. But with the right planning and preparation, it is possible to make space tourism a safe and profitable venture that could open up a whole new frontier for human exploration.

The Space Tourism Industry has seen a significant boom in recent years, raising a variety of ethical considerations concerning the benefits and drawbacks of opening the final frontier to a broader audience. While proponents of Space Tourism champion the innovative opportunities and scientific discoveries that could emerge from this new sector, its skeptics warn of environmental concerns, ethical implications, and long-term impacts on society.

One of the primary ethical considerations surrounding Space Tourism is the potential impact on the environment. Commercial launches and frequent space travel have the potential to cause significant damage to our planet as well as to the space itself, including increased atmospheric pollution, excessive noise, and debris.

Additionally, the use of non-renewable resources to fuel journeys could have serious ecological impacts, raising questions about sustainability.Moreover, the equitable distribution of Space Tourism is another ethical matter that needs to be considered.

As the costs to travel beyond the Earth’s atmosphere are likely to be prohibitive for many, this industry could further exacerbate existing social imbalances if the benefits are only accessible to a wealthy elite.Some supporters of Space Tourism argue that the benefits of advancing scientific knowledge and engineering in this field can outweigh the potential ethical concerns.

In addition, space tourism could provide a new source of revenue for space agencies that could be spent on funding further scientific research and development.In conclusion, there are various ethical considerations surrounding the Space Tourism Industry that need to be taken into account before finalizing this new frontier.

While some advocates believe it could result in positive outcomes regarding innovation and scientific discovery, others fear the detrimental long-term consequences that could harm our planet and society as a whole.

The prospects of space tourism are both tantalizing and cautionary. As we ponder the possibilities of interstellar exploration and celestial vacations, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of this exciting and potentially game-changing industry.

On the one hand, space tourism presents a unique opportunity to expand human knowledge and experience beyond our earthly realm. It has the potential to inspire new generations of scientists, engineers, and adventurers, and to foster international cooperation in the pursuit of shared goals.

Moreover, it could stimulate economic growth and technological innovation by creating new jobs, markets, and product lines.On the other hand, space tourism also entails significant risks and downsides.

From a safety standpoint, it involves complex and hazardous systems that require high levels of expertise and preparation. In addition, it can have negative environmental impacts, such as pollution, depletion of resources, and disruption of ecosystems.

Furthermore, it raises ethical and social concerns about the fairness and accessibility of extraterrestrial experiences, as well as the potential commercialization and commodification of space.As we consider the balance of these factors, it’s clear that space tourism is a complex and multi-faceted issue that requires careful consideration and dialogue.

While there may be no easy answers or clear-cut solutions, it’s important to engage in thoughtful and informed discussions about the future of this exciting and evolving field. Ultimately, the fate of space tourism will depend on our collective vision, values, and aspirations for the final frontier.

The Satellites Podcast is an all-encompassing YouTube channel for space enthusiasts who want to learn about various topics related to rocket science. One of the topics that the channel focuses on is Space Tourism.

Space tourism is a concept that has gained a lot of popularity in recent years. As people become more adventurous and willing to pay for exotic experiences, space tourism is becoming a real possibility.

The question everyone asks themselves is, is it worth it? So, how does The Satellites Podcast help in answering the pros and cons of space tourism? The Satellites Podcast provides a platform where individuals can learn about the ins-and-outs of space tourism. There are different experts on the show who provide insights into the industry, the cost, and the experience.

The show evaluates the benefits of space tourism, such as the opportunity for people to experience what astronauts see and feel, the global economic boost from the industry, and the fact that it will inspire a new generation of scientists and space enthusiasts. On the flip side, the show also explores the cons of space tourism, such as the significant environmental impact on Earth, the difficulty and danger in space travel, and the immense costs and the socio-economic inequality that will occur if only the wealthy can afford to partake in this experience.

Whether for research or entertainment purposes, The Satellites Podcast is an ideal place to educate oneself on the prospect and the implications of space tourism.

Finishing Up

In conclusion, the topic of space tourism offers an intriguing debate on whether or not it is worth pursuing. While some argue that the benefits of space tourism, such as boosting scientific advancements and inspiring young people, outweigh the possible negative consequences, others believe that the risks to human life and the environment are simply too great.

Ultimately, the decision to invest in space tourism rests on a complex balance of priorities and values. Whether we choose to explore the final frontier or focus on improving conditions on our own planet remains to be seen, but one thing is certain – the exploration of space will continue to captivate the human imagination for generations to come.

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Climate change: How bad for the environment is space travel?

• Published 23 March 2021
• comments Comments

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Watch the test of Nasa's rocket engines

Space travel can help teach us a lot about our solar system, how the Earth was formed and even the future of our planet.

But could the increase in space exploration actually be harming the environment?

This question comes after Nasa successfully tested part of the world's most powerful rocket, called the Space Launch System or 'SLS'.

During the test, the engines on the rocket's core stage were kept running for more than eight minutes - but that meant emitting lots of emissions into the atmosphere.

So how big a deal was it?

More like this

How was the Earth made?

How big is space?

Nothing was launched into the air as the core was attached to a giant structure on the ground, but it was considered successful as things worked as they were expected to.

That test run saw a huge white exhaust cloud fill the air around the SLS, and was so enormous, it was spotted from space by the Goes-16 satellite.

In the most recent SLS test Nasa say that super-cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel the big engines.

Nasa says that white cloud was made up several emissions but mostly out of water vapour - the greenhouse gas with the greatest impact on climate warming.

However water vapour only remains in the atmosphere for a few days.

How do you make a rocket fly?

Space exploration relies on large rockets which need lots of fuel to propel them through the Earth's atmosphere.

In order to get a rocket off the ground, you need to power its engines with fuel, or a propellant.

Historically, rockets have been powered by kerosene but some are now launched by using cleaner methods.

Could greener fuels be the answer?

Hydrogen is a clean fuel, but it has to be produced into a form that is usable for engines or rockets.

And it's that process that is not energy efficient or good for the environment. Almost all of the world's hydrogen is created using fossil fuels like coal or gas.

So scientists have come up with a cleaner way of creating this fuel. It's called green hydrogen .

It is produced using water electrolysis (using electricity to extract the naturally occurring hydrogen from water) and renewable energy sources, but is very expensive to do.

It currently only accounts for 1 percent of the world's total hydrogen production but is a carbon neutral manufacturing process.

That means it works to remove as much CO2 from the atmosphere as it puts into it.

Aeroplane manufacturers and fuel companies are investing a lot of money into researching green hydrogen in order to try and bring the cost of its manufacture down.

Another option is using bio-fuels to launch rockets.

Bio-fuels are fuels produced from organic material - biomass - including plant materials and animal waste.

One scientist in America, Sascha Deri, has already successfully tested his bio-fuel by launching his own mini rocket in February this year.

However, he is keeping the recipe for his bio fuel a secret, but says the main ingredient can be found from farms around the world!

More on this story

• Published 7 March 2018

• Published 31 July 2019

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The environmental and moral implications of human space travel

Affiliations.

• 1 Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences, Clemson University, Brackett Hall, Clemson 29634, SC, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
• 2 Physics, UC San Diego, Gilman Drive, La Jolla 92093, CA, USA.
• PMID: 36209886
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159222

Humans have long dreamed of traveling to space. In response to the recent increase in commercial space flight, this paper evaluates environmental impacts of human space travel, both past and present, to shed light on the large environmental footprint of such activities. This environmental impact also has a moral component, since most of the global population will never be able to participate in such activities, yet still must bear the cost. Ironically, instead of a space future acting as a relief valve on Earth's resources, few activities exact a heavier burden on our planet's resources than the space pursuit, for the number of people it serves. This analysis utilized the structure of life cycle assessment. Data on launch vehicles mass and propellant type and mass was taken from public sources. Combustion emission results were calculated using combustion analysis software. These data were then combined with data from life cycle inventory databases and impact assessment methods to evaluate midpoint impact indicators. The hourly impact from sustaining humans in space over 1500 kg CO 2 -eq per hour. To put this into context, this is 2000 times greater than the emission rate of the average person on the globe, which we term global citizen equivalents (GCE). This global warming impact is also 650 times greater than the average person in the U.S. In terms of familiar activities, this is equivalent to continuously supplying at least 4 MW of electricity from the U.S. grid; simultaneously driving over sixty diesel buses; or occupying twenty seats on a Boeing 747 that never lands. Clearly such impacts raise questions not only to the sustainability of such activities, but also to the moral and ethical implications where such travel is limited to only the very wealthiest, but the costs are borne by all with few benefits to show from the endeavour.

Keywords: Climate change; Environmental impact; Life cycle assessment; Space exploration; Space travel; Sustainability.

Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

• Environment
• Global Warming
• Motor Vehicles*
• Space Flight*

The Environmental Impact of Space Debris

Photo by Ganapathy Kumar on Unsplash

by Staff Writer | Apr 18, 2024

This article is included in these additional categories:

The accumulation of space debris becomes a pressing environmental issue as humanity extends its reach into the cosmos. With trillions of dollars and countless hours invested, our celestial pursuits have led to a congested orbit filled with over 750,000 tracked pieces of debris and possibly millions more untracked fragments. This orbital litter poses navigational hazards and raises concerns about its impact on Earth’s atmosphere and broader environmental health.

Ozone Depletion to Orbital Clutter a Potential Hazard

Each year, approximately 80 tons of space debris re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. While most debris harmlessly disintegrates, the breakdown process releases chemicals that can deplete ozone and contribute to atmospheric pollution. Furthermore, the debris that survives re-entry poses potential hazards to the ground. In orbit, the clutter significantly increases the risk of collisions, complicating space travel and satellite operations. The growing risk of Kessler Syndrome exemplifies this issue. In this theoretical scenario, the density of debris in low Earth orbit (LEO) leads to cascading collisions, greatly amplifying the debris field and jeopardizing future space endeavors.

In a recent incident, NASA confirmed that a metal object that crashed into a Naples, Florida, home was part of the International Space Station (ISS). The debris, weighing 1.6 pounds and consisting of a metal alloy known as Inconel, was part of 5,800 pounds of hardware jettisoned after a battery upgrade on the ISS. It unexpectedly survived re-entry and caused significant property damage. This event has intensified concerns over space debris management and its potential impacts on Earth.

Additional incidents globally underscore the escalating issue of space debris. In California, observers witnessed mysterious golden streaks in the sky, later identified as debris from a Chinese rocket. Moreover, remnants from a Chinese satellite and an Indian rocket were also reported, with some debris planned for public display.

These events highlight the urgent need for stringent international regulations and more robust debris mitigation strategies to ensure the safety and sustainability of space operations. NASA’s detailed investigation into how the debris survived re-entry aims to improve future protocols and prevent similar occurrences.

Challenges and Risks of Increasing Satellite Constellations

The dawn of the 2020s has seen a rapid increase in satellite launches, particularly smaller satellites that form large constellations intended to enhance global communication networks. While these constellations offer substantial benefits , such as improved internet access, they also escalate the risk of in-space collisions and contribute to the long-term sustainability challenges in LEO. The drive to populate LEO with thousands of satellites within mega-constellations, pursued by entities like Starlink and Amazon, could lead to an unsustainable increase in space debris and potential monopolization of critical orbital paths.

Steering Towards Sustainable Space Operations

Current space regulations must be equipped to manage the burgeoning challenges of orbital debris and space traffic management. A comprehensive overhaul is necessary to impose stricter controls and penalties for non-compliance. The International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) advocates for robust space debris mitigation guidelines, including preventing in-orbit explosions and the responsible disposal of spacecraft. Additionally, initiatives like the ClearSpace-1 mission , aimed at actively removing debris, highlight the emerging sector dedicated to cleaning up space.

The exponential increase in satellite and debris populations calls for a united effort from space-faring nations and organizations to implement a sustainable framework to guide future space activities. By adopting stricter regulations and fostering international cooperation, we can safeguard the invaluable space resource for future generations while mitigating its environmental impacts on Earth. This approach will preserve the operational integrity of our celestial endeavors and contribute to a broader understanding of environmental stewardship across the final frontier.

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How to make business travel more sustainable

In today’s fast-paced world, it’s standard practice for companies to send employees great distances for business growth opportunities. The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) predicts that global corporate travel costs will rise to more than $1.4 trillion this year —with no signs of slowing down.

At the same time, businesses are more aware of—and invested in—travel sustainability. According to Statista, 20% of companies rate climate and sustainability as the number one concern facing business travel as of January 2024.

It seems like a catch-22: businesses must travel more to grow—and reduce traveling to remain environmentally responsible.

But with the right business travel partners and tools and a commitment to reducing emissions (like how Uber has committed to becoming a zero-emission platform by 2040), it’s possible to travel smarter, cleaner, and greener.

What is sustainable business travel?

Sustainable business travel is the practice of managing corporate trips to minimize environmental impact while maintaining efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Sustainability goals in business travel are vital, as they support environmental conservation and reduce corporations’ ecological footprints. These goals also align with growing consumer and stakeholder expectations for businesses to reduce emissions over time.

Benefits of traveling green

Deloitte reports that just over 40% of American and European companies say they are refining their corporate travel policies to lessen their impact on the environment. And many companies around the world have adopted carbon emissions reduction plans that include modifying business travel practices to be more sustainable.

Below are some of the advantages of commiting to green business travel.

Environmental benefits

There’s a reason why , 66% of organizations are working to increase their energy efficiency. When companies commit to sustainability, they significantly reduce their carbon footprint and consume fewer resources.

Business travel often contributes heavily to carbon emissions, so adopting sustainable travel practices has a positive impact on the environment.

Positive perception of company values

Green business travel policies (and enforcement of them) show a company’s dedication to sustainability, which enhances its public image, boosts customer loyalty, and improves employee perception.

Forbes reported that 92% of consumers are likely to trust a company that supports social or environmental issues. And 88% are more loyal to these companies.

Cost savings

Traveling green is not only environmentally friendly but also cost-effective. Efficient use of resources, such as opting for less-resource-intensive travel options, can lead to significant financial savings for companies.

McKinsey’s research identifies a significant relationship between a company’s resource efficiency and its financial success. By minimizing resource expenses, a business can enhance its operating profits by up to 60%.

Employee satisfaction

Deloitte reports that 69% of employed adults want their companies to invest in sustainability —including reducing carbon. And over 70% of employees at large US companies are more likely to opt to work somewhere with a strong environmental program.

A company's commitment to sustainability attracts talent and contributes to employee morale. When people know that their employer values environmental responsibility, it increases their job satisfaction.

Ideas to make business travel more sustainable

Every year, more travelers, employees, and businesses are dedicated to sustainable travel. But what steps can companies take to accomplish this goal? Below are 4 key ideas.

1. Book trips selectively

Aviation currently accounts for 3% of all global emissions , according to Reuters. Aviation companies are actively investing in pollution-lowering projects and working toward finding more sustainable fuel. But it will take a more collaborative approach to reduce emissions. Corporations can reduce their carbon footprints through more active planning and smart travel analysis. In other words, corporate travel managers can conduct cost-benefit analyses to identify which trips are critical to the business and which they can eliminate from their travel agendas. In terms of ground transportation, corporations can invest in the Uber for Business platform. The platform allows companies to set limits and allowances for ridesharing to reduce any unnecessary travel.

2. Choose sustainable accommodations

Companies can further their commitment to sustainability by selecting eco-friendly hotels that prioritize green practices.

Choose hotels, for example, that commit to actively reducing energy and water consumption. This can include advocating for reusing towels and linens or allowing guests to opt for room cleaning as needed.

Many hotels also incorporate energy-efficient technologies and renewable energy sources, such as using LED lighting, solar panels, and energy-efficient heating and cooling systems. These measures reduce the hotel’s environmental footprint, creating an ideal partnership for business travel.

3. Explore eco-friendly transportation options

The airline industry isn’t the only travel industry investing in environmentally friendly solutions. The automotive industry is creating more lower-emission and electric vehicles. Municipalities are making cities increasingly bikeable. And Uber for Business offers sustainable travel options as well, like Uber Green and Uber Comfort Electric .

These industries, governments, and businesses are on the right track, and corporate travel managers and bleisure travelers can take action individually to further the cause. Opt to do the following:

Use eco-friendly ground transportation alternatives. Commit to carpooling, pick low-emission rideshare options, or book zero-emission vehicles (electric vehicles) with a service like Uber Comfort Electric .

Take nonstop flights. Takeoffs and landings involve high fuel consumption and emissions. Nonstop flights minimize the environmental impact. They also have shorter durations, decreasing the amount of fuel needed per trip.

Get some exercise. Is the destination within walking or biking distance? Dust off those walking shoes, unlock your bike, and pick a more environmentally friendly way to travel. If it’s a bit farther, consider an e-bike or an e-scooter.

4. Eat and shop local

Encouraging business travelers to eat and shop at local establishments promotes sustainable travel. By choosing restaurants and vendors that prioritize sustainability and source their products locally, companies can reduce the environmental impacts of food transportation and support local economies to boot.

Opting for local dining options also allows employees to walk or bike to their destinations—further reducing their carbon footprint.

Learn from available data

Moving toward more sustainable business travel practices hinges on the ability to track data and monitor progress. Below are some ways to reduce CO2 emissions through data tracking and reporting:

Carbon emissions tracking

Through the Uber for Business dashboard, you can access sustainability insights. This allows companies to track carbon emissions data related to corporate travel.

To monitor CO₂ emissions from business flights, consider investing in software that integrates with travel booking systems to calculate the carbon footprint of each flight.

Transparency and reporting

As environmental regulations increase, it’s essential for businesses to remain transparent about their climate impact each year.

To maintain their commitment to sustainability, it’s important for companies to track emissions caused by corporate travel and create an annual environmental, social, and governance (ESG) report.

Among other data, ESG reports include the company’s annual carbon footprint and energy usage metrics. Companies can then demonstrate how these elements align with their long-term sustainability goals and progress toward becoming a net-zero company.

Drive progress with Uber for Business

Reducing (or eliminating) carbon emissions from business travel doesn’t happen overnight, but setting goals, tracking data points, and investing in partnerships with organizations that care about the environment take you one step closer.

Uber for Business is dedicated to becoming more sustainable and helping your business reduce its carbon footprint. Be part of the movement toward net-zero emissions with Uber for Business .

The platform

Get the best of Uber, for business—including improved cost controls and compliance.

Expense integrations

Save time with automatic expense reconciliation

Sustainability

Get clear climate metrics such as total low-emission trips and average CO₂ per mile.

We make your health and safety top priorities.

Employee benefits

All the advantages of Uber your employees already love, for business.

The dashboard

It all starts here - manage travel and meal programs with easy to set cost controls and more.

Business profiles

Help your employees connect with your company’s Uber for Business account.

Request rides and deliveries on behalf of customers.

Purchase Uber gift cards in bulk for simplified giving.

Uber Health

Reimagine the way patients access care.

Offer business-class perks with an Uber One company membership.

Cover the cost of rides and meals, and pay only when used.

By use case

Holiday gifting

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Business travel

Oversee your travel program with the flexibility and reporting you need.

Employee commute

Set up a stress-free commute program for your employees.

Event transport

Get attendees to and from your next event.

Employee shuttles

Offer group transportation for daily commutes, cross-campus dashes, and more.

Courtesy rides

Request rides for customers and guests with ease, even if they don't have the Uber app.

Meal programs

One platform gives you the control to provide meals in multiple ways.

Recruit, retain, and reward your employees with Uber perks they want.

Corporate gifting

Exec management

Request rides and meals for leaders.

By industry

Elevate customer service with on-demand rides.

Improve health outcomes and the patient experience by enabling better access to care.

Hospitality

Delight your guests with rides and meals.

Financial services

Keep your employees moving and your clients happy.

Offer rides and meals to employees and constituents.

Customer support

Customer service

Get in touch with us or quickly find answers to top concerns.

Help Center

For admins and coordinators to browse tips and topics.

Product updates

Check out recent updates we’ve made across our platform.

Learning hub

Explore product education, case studies, and industry insights.

Customer stories

See how innovative companies work with us.

Get the latest news from Uber for Business.

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