Lift-off is usually the most environmentally harmful stage of any space mission, with vast quantities of fuel burnt up in a matter of minutes. For instance, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 gets through 112 tonnes of refined kerosene, emitting about 336 tonnes of CO2(the equivalent produced by your average car driving almost 70 times around the world).
As well as greenhouse gases, rocket engines emit chlorine and particles of soot and aluminium oxide that destroy ozone. These issues are growing more pressing with the advent of commercial spaceflight.There were114 space launchesin 2020, but there may be up to 1,000 per year in future.
Sustainable fuels are the top priority to enable greener space travel. Current spacecraft use a variety of fuels, but most are based on fossil fuels. One potentiallygreeneroption is liquid hydrogen and oxygen, used by the New Shepard Propulsion Module from private spaceflight company Blue Origin. Hydrogen can be obtained sustainably by using solar power to breakwaterdown into oxygen and hydrogen molecules.
In 2019, NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM) road-tested AF-M315E, a green alternative to hydrazine (a toxic component of many types of rocket fuel) and hopes to use this to power future missions.
Reusable rockets can cut down on some of the waste associated with spaceflight. Traditionally, boosters, fuel tanks and other components are treated as expendable. But guiding them back to Earth in a controlled manner opens new possibilities – most components fromtheFalcon 9 can be reused up to100times.
Truly environmentally friendly space travel is still some way off. But we already have many of the technologies needed to start limiting its impact on our planet.
Read more:
- Are space launches bad for the environment?
- What is the environmental impact of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch?
- How environmentally friendly are electric cars?
- Do ‘battery eaters’ make batteries more environmentally friendly to dispose of?
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