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The New Space Race Is Causing New Pollution Problems | Earth’s stratosphere has never seen the amounts of emissions and waste from rockets and satellites that a booming space economy will leave behind (www.nytimes.com)
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[-] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I'm not sold on the argument that it's okay to do this bad thing because other things are worse. No cows are farting in the stratosphere, the article is mostly about high altitude emissions being significantly worse. None of that cloud that showed up on radar was on fire.

[-] evranch@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago

I agree that they have to do better. That cloud was likely a flameout that blew methane out before termination when the oxygen ran low.

I consider that these tests have to have some tolerance for failure as the finished product shouldn't result in any venting except in an accident.

The alternatives like keralox, solid fuel or hypergolics have worse emissions in actual operation and hydralox wastes vast amounts of energy refining and chilling liquid hydrogen, so getting the methalox cycle running will be a net benefit once testing is complete.

this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
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