24 ms·
This comment piqued my interest, but I don't think it's as bad as you think it is? (In the sense that any trivial usage of carbon is "bad", sure, but in relativ
by disillusioned 6y ago
This comment piqued my interest, but I don't think it's as bad as you think it is? (In the sense that any trivial usage of carbon is "bad", sure, but in relative terms this... is way less of an impact than, say, the airlines deadheading flights in the UK to not lose their gate slips for the hell of it, for instance.)
>>>The Falcon 9 rocket runs on fossil fuels, namely Rocket Propellant 1 or RP-1, which is highly refined kerosene.
>>>Each launch burns 29,600 gallons or 112,184 Kilograms, with each Kg of fuel releasing 3 Kg of CO2, so each launch releases 336,552 Kg of CO2.
>>>A flight from London to New York City has a carbon footprint of 986 Kg, so a SpaceX launch is the equivalent of flying 341 people across the Atlantic (Jacob calculated 395). It sounds terrible, until you realize that that is about the number of people that fit into one 777-300, which can carry 45,220 gallons of fuel. So overall, one transatlantic flight of a 777 is considerably worse than a flight of the Falcon, and they do this hundreds of times a day. [1]
[1] https://www.treehugger.com/spacex-launch-puts-out-much-co-flying-people-across-atlantic-4857958 https://www.treehugger.com/spacex-launch-puts-out-much-co-fl...
- tgv 6y agoDeath by a thousand cuts.
- cies 6y ago45k gallons of fuel for 400 passengers vs 30k gallons of fuels for a hand full of "passengers". What am I missing? Seems space flight is a lot more polluting... My point being: I dont care how many flights of one type or the other is happening. I want to tax pollution fair and square. Same pollution tax on the petrol pump around the corner, as on the airport, as on the space center.
- colejohnson66 6y agoAnd many times, airplanes have 100 passengers or less. I’ve flown on flights with only two or three dozen sometimes. I think OPs point wasn’t that it’s ok, but that, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not out of the ordinary. Is it bad, sure, but we should also be fighting back against air travel in general then. Pollution taxes are one way to do that.
- cies 6y ago> we should also be fighting back against air travel in general then. I disagree. We should fight pollution, and air travel seems to evade all taxes on fuel mankind came up with... > Pollution taxes are one way to do that. It's about making pollution taxes fair and square. Not: tax this, don't tax that.
- colejohnson66 6y ago> It's about making pollution taxes fair and square. Not: tax this, don't tax that. Yes, I agree. My mind forgot to read your last sentence...
- redis_mlc 6y ago> in the grand scheme of things, it’s not out of the ordinary. No, just no.
- redis_mlc 6y agoCue the HN space fanbois in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...