4 ms·
TL;DR - it's a rounding error. A falcon 9 launch burns roughly 260 metric tons of liquid oxygen [1]. CO2 is 1.375 times the weight of O2, so assuming complete
by gpm 6y ago
TL;DR - it's a rounding error.
A falcon 9 launch burns roughly 260 metric tons of liquid oxygen [1]. CO2 is 1.375 times the weight of O2, so assuming complete all that oxygen turns into CO2 we're looking at 357 metric tons of CO2 (which is an exaggeration, because a good portion of it turns into H2O instead... but the H2O is actually slightly concerning because it's in the upper atmosphere... so whatever).
Canada wants it's Carbon tax to reach $170 CAD per ton by 2030, which seems to be considered a pretty agressive carbon tax [2]. At this rate the fuel burnt in flight would cost a whopping 61 thousand dollars CAD... or 48K USD. On a multi million dollar launch.
[1] https://spaceflight101.com/spacerockets/falcon-9-ft/ https://spaceflight101.com/spacerockets/falcon-9-ft/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_pricing_in_Canada#2020:_Updated_Federal_Carbon_Price,_reaching_$170_in_2030 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_pricing_in_Canada#2020:...