Projected Increase In Space Travel May Damage Ozone Layer!

Projected growth in rocket launches for space tourism, moon landings, and perhaps travel to Mars has many dreaming of a new era of space exploration. 

Space travel is expanding! Since the first-ever launch of Sputnik 1 by the USSR in 1957, space exploration has evolved a lot. Now NASA, SpaceX, and many more space exploration companies dream of starting space tourism and sending humans to Mars! A new study from NOAA states that this increase in space rocket launch activity may damage the protective ozone layer on the one planet we live on.

Rockets typically use Kerosene-burning engines. The rocket exhaust contains black carbon. This poisonous exhaust is released directly into the stratosphere. In the stratosphere, there is a very important and protective layer of gas called the ozone layer which protects the entire planet from the UltraViolet Radiation in sunlight.

According to NOAA, if we continue launching too many rockets with kerosene engines in the next decade, our ozone layer may be destroyed.

“We need to learn more about the potential impact of hydrocarbon-burning engines on the stratosphere and on the climate at the surface of the Earth,” said lead author Christopher Maloney, a CIRES research scientist working in NOAA’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory. “With further research, we should be able to understand better the relative impacts of different rocket types on climate and ozone.”

Let’s collectively make our earth a better place to live for our future generations to come.

Author: Sri Nihal Tammana

Source: NOAA

PC: WikiImages via Pixabay