by Katharine Gammon
1 Already, people are buying tickets to space. Companies including SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Space Adventures want to make space tourism more common.
2 The Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa spent an undisclosed sum of money with SpaceX in 2018 for a possible future private trip around the moon and back. And this June, an anonymous space lover paid $28m to fly on Blue Origin’s New Shepard with [Amazon billionaire Jeff] Bezos—though later backed out due to a ”scheduling conflict.”
3 But this launch of a new private space industry that is cultivating tourism and popular use could come with vast environmental costs, says Eloise Marais, an associate professor of physical geography at University College London. Marais studies the impact of fuels and industries on the atmosphere.
4 When rockets launch into space, they require a huge amount of propellants to make it out of the Earth’s atmosphere. For SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, it is kerosene, and for Nasa it is liquid hydrogen in their new Space Launch System. Those fuels emit a variety of substances into the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide, water, chlorine, and other chemicals.
5 The carbon emissions from rockets are small compared with the aircraft industry, she says. But they are increasing at nearly 5.6% a year, and Marais has been running a simulation for a decade, to figure out at what point they will compete with traditional sources we are familiar with.
6 “For one long-haul plane flight it’s one to three tons of carbon dioxide [per passenger],” says Marais. For one rocket launch 200–300 tonnes of carbon dioxide are split between 4 or so passengers, according to Marais. “So it doesn’t need to grow that much more to compete with other sources.”
7 Right now, the number of rocket flights is very small: in the whole of 2020, for instance, there were 114 attempted orbital launches in the world, according to Nasa. That compares with the airline industry’s more than 100,000 flights each day on average.
8 But emissions from rockets are emitted right into the upper atmosphere, which means they stay there for a long time: two to three years. Even water injected into the upper atmosphere—where it can form clouds—can have warming impacts, says Marais. “Even something as seemingly innocuous as water can have an impact.”
...
9 Marais says that there is always an element of excitement to new developments in space—but it’s still possible to be responsible while doing something exciting. She urges caution as the space tourism industry grows, and says there are currently no international rules around the kinds of fuels used and their impact on the environment. “We have no regulations currently around rocket emissions,” she says. “The time to act is now.”
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Question
Use the passage to answer the question.
What are two main reasons the writer gives for urging caution around the space tourism industry? Select the two correct answers.
(1 point)
Responses
The space industry is cultivating tourism.
The space industry is cultivating tourism.
There are currently no regulations around rocket emissions.
There are currently no regulations around rocket emissions.
New developments in space create an air of excitement.
New developments in space create an air of excitement.
The industry is growing larger each year.
The industry is growing larger each year.
Rocket emissions are small compared to emissions from the aircraft industry.
Rocket emissions are small compared to emissions from the aircraft industry.
1 answer
The two main reasons the writer gives for urging caution around the space tourism industry are:
These points highlight the environmental concerns and the lack of oversight as the industry develops.
