Controversy has been soaring around Katy Perry’s infamous Blue Origin trip to space, meanwhile, a more concerning issue has been brewing in the space community.
Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, has conducted 32 launches to date, while its competitor, SpaceX, has conducted 488 launches to date. Neither company has any intention of slowing down. So, what’s the controversy? Carbon dioxide emissions!
SpaceX is an American space technology company located in Hawthorne, California. This company is a private organization and was founded by Elon Musk. The company has had many milestones, such as the Dragon spacecraft becoming the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to and from the International Space Station in 2012. SpaceX became the first private company to take humans to this station as well in 2020.
Elon Musk is also the owner and CEO of well-known car company, Tesla. This company focuses on the production of solar energy for residential and commercial needs, batteries that store clean energy, and electric vehicles that charge with the use of that clean energy.
The SpaceX company believes a “fully and rapidly reusable rocket is the pivotal breakthrough needed to substantially reduce the cost of space access.” Despite the clean mindset, this action holds more focus on the company’s money management when preparing for launches.
The main enviornment concerns do not neccessarily lie with the recycling of rockets, but with a deeper topic: carbon emissions.
In an article by BBC News, a physical geography professor from the University College London, Eloise Marais, conducted research regarding space launches and their emissions. Marais discovered that “black carbon emissions will more than double after just an additional three years of space tourism launches, and that particles emitted by rockets are almost 500 times more efficient at holding heat in the atmosphere than all other sources of soot combined, resulting in an enhanced warming climate effect.”
Some effects of global warming include rising sea levels, more frequent and extreme weather events, ocean acidification, and disruptions to ecosystems and habitats.
Across our globe, organizations of all sizes help to do what they can to reduce the effects of climate change and global warming. Here at Stroudsburg High School, students can participate in a club known as the Environmental Club.
This club strives to help make the planet a cleaner place. In previous years, the club has had a number of accomplishments that have aided their goal, such as litter pick-ups, the crafting of bird feeders, succulent sales, and more! The club’s meetings are hands-on and consist of members working hard on new eco projects year-round.
“I think we should spend a large amount of our budget going towards space exploration on environmental conservation,” expresses Berlin Ulmer, ‘25, Vice President of Stroudsburg’s Environmental Club. “I believe there’s still an opportunity to save the planet we have, and we’re prematurely neglecting it and discarding it by funding SpaceX so heavily.”
On the other hand, some believe that our planet is beyond repair at this point in the climate change war. As a result, the desire to travel to space has strengthened. Whether it’s to simply orbit Earth or find a new planet like Mars to call home, various organizations have worked to find a way to continue humanity’s exploration of space.