The problem with rocket emissions

this

is our stratosphere

it’s the second layer

of our atmosphere and within it

we have our ozone layer

our ozone layer is this massive

invisible protective shield that

surrounds our planet blocking out 98

of harmful ultraviolet radiation

without it we’d all essentially get

fried to death

plants animals and life itself simply

wouldn’t exist

we must protect our ozone layer at all

costs

but

we have a problem

each time we send something into space

we risk damaging our ozone layer one bit

at a time exposing life on earth to more

harmful radiation

we as humans are curious competitive

creatures it’s why we love space travel

and i want to make it clear that space

travel has brought us so many good

things

i mean we’ve flown by every planet in

our solar system we’ve sent humans to

the moon

and we’ve even sent satellites into

interstellar realm outside our solar

system

it’s led to the innovations and

inventions of

laptops phone cameras gps insulin pumps

and we could go on

and on and on

i mean we’ve escaped gravity here this

is one of or perhaps humanity’s greatest

accomplishment but

it’s important to examine the

consequences of our actions

each time we send a rocket into space

burning either solid or liquid rocket

fuel

we shoot out a bunch of these teeny tiny

particles into our stratosphere

they’re made of black carbon or soot and

alumina

these particles are between 0.3 and 10

microns in diameter

for reference a single strand of human

hair is 50 microns wide

but these particles arrange together in

these ginormous stratospheric clouds and

they can stay here for a really long

time of up to four years

when they stay here for up to four years

they absorb and reflect sunlight

this actually changes the flow of

radiation from our sun

into our stratosphere

we call this radiative forcing

and radiative forcing heats up our

stratosphere and as our stratosphere

gets hotter it speeds up the rate of

processes that damage and thin out our

ozone

and what’s more is that these harmful

processes can occur on the surface of

alumina particles themselves

so you may be wondering how much does

rocket pollution contribute to our ozone

loss

well the current estimates which may be

a little inaccurate say that we’ve

destroyed our ozone from rockets by

between 0.01

and 0.1 percent

that’s no big deal

isn’t it well it’s actually a huge deal

and let me explain why

as we speak we’re currently in the midst

of a modern space race but instead of

the soviet union sending a bunch of

satellites into space and us americans

sending even more satellites into space

it’s led by these guys

yup our favorite billionaire space

moguls

elon musk jeff bezos and richard branson

who own these ginormous private space

companies

let me repeat that private space

companies not governmental agencies

this privatization of space travel is a

huge deal

because it creates a space economy

and in today’s space economy we have

over a hundred corporations across

across the globe

and countries across the globe like

india and china each sending more

objects the space than we ever imagined

and these billionaires simply don’t care

that much about the environment and it’s

understandable i mean it’s not their top

priority this is a space race we’re

talking about here and they’re trying to

get as much stuff into space as fast as

they possibly can

just within the past year in 2021

we’ve sent 1100 objects into space

that’s almost 10 percent of all objects

ever sent into space

just within the past seven months

in 2021

and that measly current point one

percent of global ozone loss is bound to

grow significantly especially with the

advent of space tourism

in 2013 a bunch of celebrities like brad

pitt justin bieber selena gomez on the

list goes on

dozens of these celebrities bought

tickets to go to outer space in the

coming decades

and just the other day jeff bezos and

richard branson went into outer space

this space economy is going to be

booming

so you may be wondering

what laws do we have in place or rules

or regulations do we have to try to

limit and reduce this pollution

the answer

is none

we have no laws to reduce this pollution

the montreal protocol which is the 1987

international treaty responsible for

protecting our ozone layer

has nothing to say about rocket

emissions

in addition international space law has

no mention of rocket emissions either

for reference

the previously banned ozone depleting

substances by the montreal protocol

adds up to about three percent and

rocket emissions are thought to be

between 0.01 and 0.1 percent as of now

we as humans need to learn from our

mistakes

for example we saw an eerily similar

problem with space debris

ever since we launched the first

satellite in 1957

the sputnik won by the soviet union into

orbit

we’ve created space junk and today we

have hundreds of millions of this these

tiny fragments of space junk orbiting

our planet at 10 times the speed of a

bullet

each one having the capability to

severely damage a spacecraft

so how many laws do we have today

that prevent us from making more space

junk

the answer

zero

we have none

we cannot make this same mistake with

rocket pollution but as of now we’re

currently headed down the same path

especially because we haven’t done our

research

the current scientific studies and

models that exist of this pollution have

been conducted several decades ago

and they consist of pollutants that

don’t really damage your ozone layer by

that much

we haven’t created mechanisms to try to

reduce this pollution and we haven’t we

don’t know how much pollution is really

up there and what impact it really has

we don’t know how newer methane based

fuels may impact our planet

even nasa which is a governmental agency

is actively working to fund these

private companies and to accelerate

space travel

so

here we are guys we’re living in the

midst of this exhilarating space race

corporations and countries across the

globe are actively working to send more

satellites into space than we’ve ever

seen before

it’s the year 2021 and there’s no going

back

i decided to manifest my two cents into

a science fair project

in the year 2019 when i was 16 years old

i made it my goal to create some sort of

air purifier for the stratosphere

i envisioned that with a drone or a

weather balloon this air purifier could

go up into the stratosphere after a

rocket launch and collect this pollution

when it’s kind of concentrated

but

making an air filter that will survive

in the stratosphere is no easy task the

stratosphere is an unpleasant and

unforgiving environment

such a filter had to meet several

criteria it had to be porous

relatively inexpensive

strong

hydrophobic

lightweight

resistant to ozone vacuum and radiation

conditions in the stratosphere

i used a material called air gel for my

filter

aerogel is an ultra light strong and

porous material

specifically i chose to use polyemit air

gels

polyamide is a material used by nasa

because of its wide temperature range

remarkable strength and inexpensive

price

i infused my polyamide aero gels with

cerium oxide nanoparticles

these nanoparticles are so small that a

hundred thousand of them could fit in

the width of a single human hair

so using these cerium oxide

nanoparticles in my polyimide air gel

allowed it to meet all my criteria they

made them uv and ozone resistant

while being hydrophobic

without clogging up my filter

so how did i test my filter

well

as you can imagine as a 16 year old i

didn’t really have access to the

stratosphere

so

i built my very own stratospheric

chamber

and with enormous amounts of help from

teachers parents and friends i was able

to test out my filters

against this rocket pollution in a lab

the result

my dull polyimide penny looking air gels

try saying that 10 times fast collected

over two and a half times the pollution

of ordinary furnace filters in addition

to being twice as strong

and add half the density now

although my nifty little high school

science fair project is very fascinating

thank you very much

it’s simply a small step in the right

direction

and we need to take several leaps before

we can get rocket pollution under

control

how can we create the world’s first

modern atmospheric models of this

pollution

how can we raise awareness about this

poorly known and poorly studied issue

how can we reduce this rocket pollution

without stunting our innovation

my hope is that we can get lawmakers

activists and scientists to all come

together to make a difference

to protect our ozone

to protect our planet and all the

beautiful life in it

and to allow us to achieve humanity’s

wildest space dreams

during this accelerating space race

thank you