4 ms·

If someone has the time, I'd love to see the total amount of lead added to the atmosphere by burning up satellites compared to the amount from other anthropogen

• adastra22 1y ago
  Rough napkin math would be negligible impact. The amount of lead in a satellite is very small, if not actually zero. The amount of lead added by burning coal is about 30 tonnes per day.
  • everforward 1y ago
    There is almost definitely a small, negligible amount of lead in the solder in them. Eg NASA requires a small (single digit I think) percentage of lead to prevent tin whiskering.
    • JumpCrisscross 1y ago
      > almost definitely a small, negligible amount of lead in the solder in them Emphasis on negligible. Assuming 0.07 to 0.28 ppm lead [1] in meteoroids, space is dosing us with half to 2 kg a year [2]. [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/001670376090079X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/001670... [2] https://earthsky.org/space/tons-of-extraterrestrial-dust-fall-to-earth-each-year/#:~:text=Bottom%20line%3A,each%20year. https://earthsky.org/space/tons-of-extraterrestrial-dust-fal...
• deleted 1y ago
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