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.”
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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.”
What evidence backs up the statement in paragraph 8 that even something that seems innocuous can be harmful?
(1 point)
Responses
It is possible to be responsible and do exciting work at the same time.
It is possible to be responsible and do exciting work at the same time.
Rocket emissions go into the upper atmosphere.
Rocket emissions go into the upper atmosphere.
Rocket fuels include kerosene and liquid hydrogen.
Rocket fuels include kerosene and liquid hydrogen.
Water can form clouds and cause warming.
1 answer
The correct evidence that backs up the statement in paragraph 8 that even something that seems innocuous can be harmful is:
Water can form clouds and cause warming.
This highlights how something as seemingly harmless as water can have a significant environmental impact when emitted into the upper atmosphere.
1 answer
1 answer
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1 answer