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> The Polaris Program is a first-of-its-kind effort to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities, while continuing to raise funds and awareness for importa

> The Polaris Program is a first-of-its-kind effort to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities, while continuing to raise funds and awareness for important causes here on Earth But if we're launching loads of people into space, what does the carbon footprint of that look like? How can you care for the earth if burnt rocket fuel is detrimental to the atmosphere?

Me1000 5y ago
If you actually care about the answer you can read up on it (or watch the video) here: https://everydayastronaut.com/rocket-pollution/ https://everydayastronaut.com/rocket-pollution/ tl;dr: In 2018 rockets accounted for about 0.0000059% of global carbon emissions. To put that in perspective, the airline industry produced 2.4% in 2018.
ceejayoz 5y ago
> But if we're launching loads of people into space, what does the carbon footprint of that look like? Pretty small. A 747 holds about 200 tons of fuel. A Starship holds something like 1,200. One Starship flight is roughly equivalent to six long 747 flights (as a rough estimate). Even with an absurd thousand Starship flights a day, commercial air travel far exceeds it.
- Me1000 5y ago
  A couple caveats: the 1200 figure (which is only for Starship) includes liquid oxygen. So the actual methane capacity is about 265 tons as roughly 78% of the propellant is liquid oxygen by mass. But the super heavy booster carries about 800 tons of methane.
  - mlindner 5y ago
    Methane is also 4/5ths Hydrogen so most of what's put out is water vapor.
    - ceejayoz 5y ago
      If you can generate some of it from cattle poop and landfill venting, you might even be able to claim carbon neutrality.
      - Me1000 5y ago
        In the long term SpaceX plans to generate it using the sabatier process by pulling CO2 out of the air. It's old physics, and the tech to do it on a large scale will be required for their ultimate goal of going to Mars (errr... well, it will be required for a Starship to be able to come back to Earth from Mars)

Me1000 5y ago

If you actually care about the answer you can read up on it (or watch the video) here: https://everydayastronaut.com/rocket-pollution/ https://everydayastronaut.com/rocket-pollution/ tl;dr: In 2018 rockets accounted for about 0.0000059% of global carbon emissions. To put that in perspective, the airline industry produced 2.4% in 2018.

ceejayoz 5y ago

> But if we're launching loads of people into space, what does the carbon footprint of that look like? Pretty small. A 747 holds about 200 tons of fuel. A Starship holds something like 1,200. One Starship flight is roughly equivalent to six long 747 flights (as a rough estimate). Even with an absurd thousand Starship flights a day, commercial air travel far exceeds it.

Me1000 5y ago
A couple caveats: the 1200 figure (which is only for Starship) includes liquid oxygen. So the actual methane capacity is about 265 tons as roughly 78% of the propellant is liquid oxygen by mass. But the super heavy booster carries about 800 tons of methane.
- mlindner 5y ago
  Methane is also 4/5ths Hydrogen so most of what's put out is water vapor.
  - ceejayoz 5y ago
    If you can generate some of it from cattle poop and landfill venting, you might even be able to claim carbon neutrality.
    - Me1000 5y ago
      In the long term SpaceX plans to generate it using the sabatier process by pulling CO2 out of the air. It's old physics, and the tech to do it on a large scale will be required for their ultimate goal of going to Mars (errr... well, it will be required for a Starship to be able to come back to Earth from Mars)