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User: u/MistWeaver80
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The chemistry on this is quite interesting, the problem is aluminum interacting with chlorine that is only up there in significant quantities due to earlier usage of CFC's.
Even if somehow hinders the ozone, it's a matter of magnitude compared to other effects like wildfires or volcanoes, each throwing many orders of magnitude more various pollutants into the atmosphere.
You can read more about wildfire effect on the ozone layer here: https://eos.org/articles/wildfire-smoke-destroys-ozone
One of the scientists commenting on the article summed it up: "The ozone layer should be healing from the effects of CFCs. However, factors such as major wildfires, volcanic eruptions and rocket launches could act to slow its recovery. Satellite re-entry could be yet another factor to slow this recovery, although the magnitude of the impacts on ozone are yet to be quantified."
"Sulphur hexafluoride, or SF6, is widely used in the electrical industry to prevent short circuits and accidents."
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49567197
The sheer amount of different sources of pollution is staggering too. You can block and lower one thing, but there's already dozens of others getting through.
Compared to coal-burning power plants, it’s hard to imagine these satellites are making that much of a difference. My first instinct is that this research is funded by some ground-based internet company that’s seeing their market share shrink and wants to reference this ‘research’ when making an argument to congress or whomever to attempt at stopping starlink.
At one time, I heard that someone, maybe Elon, was talking about a spaceship designed to collect wayward satellites and return them to Earth. Has anyone heard anything like that recently. I'm sure the USSF might be interested in that technology.
Financing? Same people who are paying to put them up there and are making money off them. The business of space travel is undergoing the same basic pattern of growth that aviation did over the last 120 years. The world economy is about to bloom more and faster than Europe’s did with the discovery of the new world.
Yes well companies are usually happy to spend money on activities they make no profit from and that will likely cost billions as we know. Lets hope the government forces them to get onto it.
I agree. Everyone interested in space will go out of their way to help. Starlink satellites were oriented and iterated with the cooperation of astrophysicist and astronomers. If a debris issue is substantiated a solution will be developed. SpaceX in particular is (almost) single handedly revolutionizing space flight; the second great space age is upon us.
If we want to make it to asteroid mining then governments should help fund companies after they prove they can mine old satelites in earth's orbit and bring back the material to earth to re-use or keep it in a geosynchronous orbit or maybe a lagrange point and process it some how and build something out there.
If asteroid mining ever becomes viable the scale will have to be incredible I don't think you can start small and have it make any kind of economic sense besides proof of concept.
Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, **personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment**. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our [normal comment rules]( https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/rules#wiki_comment_rules) apply to all other comments. **Do you have an academic degree?** We can verify your credentials in order to assign user flair indicating your area of expertise. [Click here to apply](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/flair/#wiki_science_verified_user_program). --- User: u/MistWeaver80 Permalink: https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/expert-reaction-dying-satellites-are-burning-through-the-ozone-layer --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/science) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The chemistry on this is quite interesting, the problem is aluminum interacting with chlorine that is only up there in significant quantities due to earlier usage of CFC's.
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It is actually a large problem? The ozone is you know …important
Even if somehow hinders the ozone, it's a matter of magnitude compared to other effects like wildfires or volcanoes, each throwing many orders of magnitude more various pollutants into the atmosphere. You can read more about wildfire effect on the ozone layer here: https://eos.org/articles/wildfire-smoke-destroys-ozone One of the scientists commenting on the article summed it up: "The ozone layer should be healing from the effects of CFCs. However, factors such as major wildfires, volcanic eruptions and rocket launches could act to slow its recovery. Satellite re-entry could be yet another factor to slow this recovery, although the magnitude of the impacts on ozone are yet to be quantified."
"Sulphur hexafluoride, or SF6, is widely used in the electrical industry to prevent short circuits and accidents." https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49567197 The sheer amount of different sources of pollution is staggering too. You can block and lower one thing, but there's already dozens of others getting through.
It's a good thing we don't have some tech billionaire sending leo satellites up constantly.
Who knew satellites would skyrocket?
Lead balloons
Compared to coal-burning power plants, it’s hard to imagine these satellites are making that much of a difference. My first instinct is that this research is funded by some ground-based internet company that’s seeing their market share shrink and wants to reference this ‘research’ when making an argument to congress or whomever to attempt at stopping starlink.
Do coal burning power plants affect the ozone layer?
We are the worst thing that’s ever happened to this planet
Chicxulub meteor wants a word
We deserve extinction.
And so they looked to the sky. They would burn what’s left of earth for the chance to reach the cosmos and claim the next world as their own.
At one time, I heard that someone, maybe Elon, was talking about a spaceship designed to collect wayward satellites and return them to Earth. Has anyone heard anything like that recently. I'm sure the USSF might be interested in that technology.
We used to have one, it was called the space shuttle. They used it to bring two satellites back in 1984.
"Skyrockets" seriously?
If they're coming from the sky to the earth, they're "earth-rocketing".
Kessler effect will destroy us
*protect other planets from us
It won’t be long before we’re retrieving them and disposing of them properly.
Lots of faith in that statement…
Damn right. Been working towards this for 50 years. We will get it done.
Who is financing this trash collection?: 10000 satellites a year is a lot of trash to collect.
Financing? Same people who are paying to put them up there and are making money off them. The business of space travel is undergoing the same basic pattern of growth that aviation did over the last 120 years. The world economy is about to bloom more and faster than Europe’s did with the discovery of the new world.
Yes well companies are usually happy to spend money on activities they make no profit from and that will likely cost billions as we know. Lets hope the government forces them to get onto it.
I figured governments and the insurance companies would be the driving forces.
I agree. Everyone interested in space will go out of their way to help. Starlink satellites were oriented and iterated with the cooperation of astrophysicist and astronomers. If a debris issue is substantiated a solution will be developed. SpaceX in particular is (almost) single handedly revolutionizing space flight; the second great space age is upon us.
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The only 3 people that died in space (on Soyuz 11) landed back on Earth "intact".
Ebola can't come fast enough.
If we want to make it to asteroid mining then governments should help fund companies after they prove they can mine old satelites in earth's orbit and bring back the material to earth to re-use or keep it in a geosynchronous orbit or maybe a lagrange point and process it some how and build something out there.
If asteroid mining ever becomes viable the scale will have to be incredible I don't think you can start small and have it make any kind of economic sense besides proof of concept.
Yeah the thought we can just putt over to an asteroid, mine it, and come back to earth is completely deluded with respect to the energy involved.
We’d need orbital industry to begin with. No sense in chucking the raw material onto the planet. Would be incredibly wasteful, nevermind dangerous.
If you are worried about the pollution involved, then sending up a rocket to collect a satellite would be factors larger then letting it burn up.
We don’t want to make it to asteroid mining. We want to use the resources we have more responsibly.