![]() It’s roughly 100 times stronger than CO2. The concentration of methane in the stratosphere is around 0.7ppm (maybe closer to 1+ ppm today, and closer to 2 ppm in the atmosphere overall). suggests that NO helps convert some of the methane to more ozone, which would increase the oxidation capacity. Photolysis will get things eventually, but it can take longer (depending on alt). Put too much stuff up there, and it will saturate that capacity. Which suggests that the oxidation capacity is limited. But production of ozone is several OoM slower. And there’s a few reactions that consume ozone. One complication I’ve gleaned from that paper is that the primary source of O(1D) in the stratosphere seems to be photolysis of ozone. Direct TV shows that satellite constellations can make a lot of revenue. Direct TV makes $40 billion a year in revenue. SpaceX should also exceed NASA’s budget in revenue by deploying the Starlink satellite network. First for package delivery to prove the 10,000X improvement in safety before flying people. I believe that SpaceX could take over long-haul flights. This would mean about $20 million to launch a space-based solar coal plant replacement. Even if the weight of the space-based solar system was higher it would still be emissions efficient.Įlon Musk has talked about getting the cost per launch of the SpaceX Super Heavy Starship down to $2 million per launch. If the weight can be cut in half then 1 day of emissions payback. 120-ton launches will come from the SpaceX Super Heavy. If the system was 2 kilograms per kilowatt. So 600MW delivered to the ground would be 5 terawatt-hours per year. Space-based solar in the right orbit would have almost 100% capacity factor. How Much CO2 for Launching Space-Based Solar Power?ġ000 tons of CO2 per gigawatt-hour of coal power.Ī 1-gigawatt coal plant at 60% operating capacity would be about 5 Terawatt hours per year. Rocket travel replacing passenger jets would be better in terms of CO2 than existing aviation. There are 4 billion passenger trips each year and this is increasing and should double by 2035. The World currently has about 30,000 large passenger jets. This means the per person emissions would be less than a 777 with three times the seating capacity but double the per flight emissions for a trans-Atlantic crossing. They would ride in seating like a roller coaster and the actual flight would be less than one-hour. The 777 would have less emissions than a SpaceX Starship flight and the Airbus 380 would have more.Įlon Musk is planning to eventually put 1000 people into a Starship. The Airbus 380 has 80,000 gallons of fuel. The Starship would be more equivalent to a crossing of the Pacific Ocean. The Starship would have 40% more emissions. One transatlantic flight of a 777 is considerably 52% more than a flight of the Falcon 9 which is about 513 tons of CO2. 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.Ī 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. The Falcon 9 rocket runs on highly refined kerosene. The Starship alone would be about double the CO2 emissions of the Falcon 9.Ĭalculations below would have about 2 days payback of the CO2 emissions (versus using coal) from the flights to launch space-based solar power using Super Heavy Starships. ![]() The Super Heavy Starship would generate 8 times as much CO2 emissions as the Falcon 9. This would reduce Starship emissions to about 200 tons of CO2 per flight. ![]() ![]() Sub-orbital flights should need only need about 25% of the fuel. The Starship will use 1200 tons of fuel or 260 tons of methane. The Super Heavy Booster will use 3300 tons of fuel. The larger SpaceX Super Heavy Starship will use 1kg of methane for every 3.6 kg of oxygen. Each flight of a SpaceX Falcon 9 or any other orbital rocket launch is about the same as a passenger jet like a 777 flying across the Atlantic. ![]()
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