Elon Musk has had our attention for a few years now, especially with his desire to colonize Mars and the projects that have come along with this. However, his latest stunt of sending the Falcon Heavy Booster into space, with the Roadster acting as passenger, has certainly captivated the masses. With Musk’s uncertainty of the how successful it would be leading up to the launch, the success of the sixty-four ton Falcon is a definitive level of achievement. Moving forward, it also has the potential to be more cost effective with $90 million launches being advertised by SpaceX.
Though questionable in the aspect of self-advertising, the event has undoubtedly brought attention back to a waning industry. It also begs a question regarding a new level of environmental sensibility; whether we are now simply taking our impacts into orbit.
It must be recognized that SpaceX’s reuse of launch materials is a huge step forward for the industry, however considering the amount of space junk that currently exists, the addition of human-made products must not be overlooked. Despite the uncertainty, this endeavour was hugely successful and had a more powerful last boost than expected. With the aim of heading toward Mars, the roadster is now instead travelling toward the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter with a somewhat unsure trajectory.
A University of Toronto study has shown that the expected trajectory will lead to an eventual collision with Earth or Venus, though not in our lifetime. In their media release of the study, Hanno Rein, author of research and assistant professor of physics at the University of Toronto, was quoted saying, “It will likely end up colliding with Earth or Venus, but there’s no need to panic since the probability of that happening even within the next million years is very small…”.
In reality, the trajectory of the Roadster is subject to change as it is pulled by the gravitational forces of planets and thus difficult to predict, but this does highlight how it is not necessarily the most sustainable project. It is also a concern that Musk had addressed prior to the launch being quoted by The Atlantic as saying, “There’s a tiny chance that it will hit Mars…Extremely tiny.” This in itself raises a question of how much consideration Musk himself has made to the long-term impacts of his technology.
During this long-term orbit it is also thought by some that there will be a level of destruction caused by impact with debris, which in turn presumably leads to more space junk for existing satellites and space stations. According to NASA more than 500,000 pieces of debris are already tracked in Earths orbit, which pose a very real issue for crafts in orbit as they can travel at speeds as fast as 17,500 mph.
Another environmental concern for the project is the sheer amount of fuel required to launch. One trip may not have a drastic effect on our already astronomical levels emissions, using approximately 440 tonnes of kerosene, but the intention for SpaceX is that there will eventually be a launch every two weeks. Given the current state of emissions and the global recognition of this crisis, the potential exacerbation by such space endeavours cannot be overlooked.
There are a number of future projects planned for SpaceX. By the end of the year the intention is to launch the Falcon 9 and Dragon with astronauts, rather than a mannequin, wearing the spacesuits. In line with his desire to colonize Mars, there is also the future aim of sending the Big Falcon Rocket into space. This is the spaceship designed to carry 100 passengers, which has been a hot topic of conversation over the past two years since it was revealed. Musk has stated that the launch, “…will most likely be at our Brownsville location because we’ve got a lot of land if it blows up.” This was also a possible outcome of the latest launch, but still brings us back around to the question of how environmentally viable the technology really is at this point.
While sending anything into space is not currently an option without some environmental impact, the risks still need to be considered. Given how unsuccessful we as a society have been in retroactively dealing with the repercussions of emissions and other harmful practices for the environment, there has to be some level of concern regarding the spilling of our poor habits into space.
By Annalisse Crosswell
Please note that opinions expressed are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and values of The Blank Page
