Global warming: the underestimated impact of space tourism

Since the first manned flight into space, carried out by the Russian Yuri Gagarin in 1961, this extraordinary adventure seems to be able to seduce more than one; however, the experience is very costly, and manned space flight has long been reserved exclusively for astronauts trained in specific space missions.

It was in 2001, 40 years after the spacewalk of Yuri Gagarinthat the first real space tourist flies to the international space stationthanks to the Russian space agency which offers the wealthiest a trip to space for tens of millions of dollars, with the aim of solving its budgetary problems.

There have since been many companies aiming to send civilian tourists into space, whether for a stay on the International Space Station or for a flight. suborbitallike the company Virgin Galactic edited by Richard Branson. More recently, companies Blue Origin and SpaceXmounted respectively by the billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Muskhave carried out manned space flights by several civilians during the year 2021, raising questions about the relevance of such an activity, and the impact it could have on the climate earthly.

A much greater impact than that of the aeronautical industry

British and American scientists wanted to precisely assess the impact of the launches of rocket alone on the Earth’s climate, by compiling in a 3D atmospheric model the emissions generated by all of the 103 launches that took place during 2019, as well as the re-entry of space debris into the atmosphere.

And their results seem alarming: according to the authors, the soot particles emitted by the rockets would be up to 500 times more effective in retaining the heat than all other sources combined: although the emissions generated by rocket launches are generally considered to be greenhouse gases comparable to those of the aeronautical industries, their study thus tends to show that this view is false.

According to their studythe model also demonstrates the strong impact of such emissions on theozone stratospheric, thin atmospheric layer very fragile, and yet vital, because it protects us from the harmful radiations of the Sun : according to their model, a rate of weekly rocket launches would be sufficient to compromise the processes of recovery of the ozone layer observed since the implementation of the Montreal Protocol, aimed at eliminating on a global scale the substances threatening the ozone layer.

A booming sector

Although today the impact of space tourism is still weak – the sector of activity is only in its infancy – the authors of the study are concerned about its expansionist character: the strong impact of the emissions thus generated on our climate could unfortunately quickly become visible.

Such a study thus calls into question the relevance of such an activity, in view of the current climate emergency and the financial means implemented to carry it out. It therefore appears necessary to re-evaluate the collective interest of the space tourism sector, or at least to develop less polluting launch processes.