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The implication in the article is that the exhaust gases may not be as significant as the metallic debris that vaporizes in the atmosphere. It sounds very unnat

The implication in the article is that the exhaust gases may not be as significant as the metallic debris that vaporizes in the atmosphere. It sounds very unnatural for the atmosphere to have to deal with this, but here’s an interesting quote regarding meteorites (natural metallic debris): “Estimates for the mass of material that falls on Earth each year range from 37,000-78,000 tons. Most of this mass would come from dust-sized particles.” http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/75-our-solar-system/comets-meteors-and-asteroids/meteorites/313-how-many-meteorites-hit-earth-each-year-intermediate http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/75-our-solar-syste...

nerdponx 7y ago
Could this have a possible cloud-seeding effect?
lostmyoldone 7y ago
I do think that it's a good idea to do some research in the area, a really good idea. We've assumed far too much about the resiliency of our environment. With that said, I would be quite surprised if unspecific metal debris/dust is going to have any major effects, except as it already is as a threat to the functionality of satellites, space stations, and rockets. The meteorite argument is quite strong, but not unassailable, as meteorites in general has a chemical composition that is quite different from space hardware. Not that we use a lot of Antimony in rockets, but it works as en example. If I interpreted the numbers correctly, we can put an upper limit on the contribution of atmospheric Antimony from 78000 tons of meteorites at ~16 kg, or roughly 35 lbs. Thus, it's not entirely impossible that some of the space hardware over it's life, and death, can contribute more of certain unusual elements to the atmosphere than meteorites do in the same period. Organic molecules however, those are a bit more concerning, as we already know that some species can greatly affect our atmosphere!

nerdponx 7y ago

Could this have a possible cloud-seeding effect?

lostmyoldone 7y ago

I do think that it's a good idea to do some research in the area, a really good idea. We've assumed far too much about the resiliency of our environment. With that said, I would be quite surprised if unspecific metal debris/dust is going to have any major effects, except as it already is as a threat to the functionality of satellites, space stations, and rockets. The meteorite argument is quite strong, but not unassailable, as meteorites in general has a chemical composition that is quite different from space hardware. Not that we use a lot of Antimony in rockets, but it works as en example. If I interpreted the numbers correctly, we can put an upper limit on the contribution of atmospheric Antimony from 78000 tons of meteorites at ~16 kg, or roughly 35 lbs. Thus, it's not entirely impossible that some of the space hardware over it's life, and death, can contribute more of certain unusual elements to the atmosphere than meteorites do in the same period. Organic molecules however, those are a bit more concerning, as we already know that some species can greatly affect our atmosphere!