is the space race the culprit for enviromental damage?

Question

like how many times has the ozone layer been penetrated in the last thirty years or since the first rocket was launched that must have done some damage, maybe alot.

Answer 1

Well, as much as I love our space program, and as much as I hate to be an alarmist, we put tons of ozone destroying chemicals into the atmosphere, at least 230 tons of chlorine via the primary oxidant, ammonium perchlorate, used in the solid rocket boosters. Fortunately, the greatest bulk of the fuel has harmless water vapor as its exhaust, as was pointed out previously.

Chlorine (the first "C" in CFCs) is the principle atom responsible in the theoretical destruction of ozone.

So, you're right about ozone damage, but this is not necessarily linked to global warming. Bad for the environment, yes, but how this compares to other industrial pollutants would take more research. (BTW, shuttle exhaust is in no way comparable to automobile exhaust, totally different effect.)

Answer 2

OMG where are people getting this IDEA?

how can the ozone layer being penetrated cause it damage????? The ozone layer is not some sort of solid protective sheild that doesn't work if it gets punctured! Go back to elementary science class before you make yourself look like any more of a fool.

Here is a quick refresher for you.

the 3 common states of matter are....

Solid, Liquid, and Gas

Liquids and gases are called fluids because they can be made to flow, or move. In any fluid, the molecules themselves are in constant, random motion, colliding with each other and with the walls of any container.

So shooting a rocket through the ozone is like throwing a rock into a pond. Does the rock damage the water???

As far as the emissions from the rocket, those emissions are so small in comparison to the rest of the emissions in the world that the atmosphere wouldn't even notice.

Without those Rockets going into space we wouldn't even know about the ozone layer. Think about that before you question how much damage was caused.

Answer 3

The thing about the atmosphere (and the ozone layer) is that it's a mixture of many different gases. When something moves through the atmosphere, such as when you walk down the street or we fire a rocket into space, it cuts a path through the atmopshere and causes disturbance but this soon settles back down again and the atmosphere returns to the same condition that it was in previously.

Dana (above) has provided some useful figures so you can out the damage into context.

Answer 4

Since people started launching rockets there have always been people who claimed they caused bad weather, headaches, irregular periods and the designated hitter, all by "poking holes" in the atmosphere. That opinion began long before we any rocket that would get anywhere near the ozone layer. It's similar to the belief that in some cases, dancing will cause it to rain.

The Space Shuttle produces a large amount of sulphuric acid from it's sold rocket boosters. These contribute to acid rain, and I've never liked that. They have a permit from the EPA.

Answer 5

In case you haven't noticed, the space race is over. The U.S. won it in 1969. Since then, fewer and fewer rockets have been launched every year, until now there are less than 10 per year launched from the U.S. and only about 50 launched every year world wide.

And the ozone hole is not caused by rockets anyway.

Answer 6

The ozone layer isn't like fabric, it's just a part of the atmosphere with relatively large amounts of ozone molecules (3 oxygen atoms joined together). Even the ozone layer only has a few parts per million of ozone - so for every million molecules in the ozone layer, only a few of them are ozone molecules.

Thus the space shuttle passing through the ozone layer isn't any different than you walking through the troposphere, which is the lowest level of atmosphere which goes down to the Earth's surface. You just push the atoms and molecules out of the way, they don't rip. As for shuttle emissions:

"Space shuttle fuel consumed in a launch: 3.5 million pounds

Gasoline consumed in one day in the US - 2,500 million pounds.

In other words, one space shuttle launch is equivalent to about two minutes of gasoline consumption in the United States."

Answer 7

I think that there is no doubt about the amount of emissions of the fuel on the rocket releases. More than a car at least! but as far as major damage? As opposed to millions of cars driving around? and industrialization?

Answer 8

Only the booster rockets of the Space Shuttle pollutes. The main engines are Hydrogen and Oxygen fueled. Their pollutants is water.

Answer 9

May be you have a point. We should take in to account the number of other factors. Human beings have been causing havoc out there in the space. The whole of Clarke's orbit needs scavenging.

It is full of space dust, and rubbish. One day it might protect us from sunlight, who knows.

Answer 10

Don`t think so,the Earth has been around for ???????years and volcanoes/metoers etc have been through the "ozone" millions of times,so i don`t think that us little animals will do any damage!,I`m sure that the Earth will still be here long after we are gone!!!!