Physicists figured out how launching a Falcon 9 changes the atmosphere - Interesting Engineering

"Frequent future rocket launches could have a significant cumulative effect on climate.".

With the cost of launching a rocket into space falling, the number of rocket launches is, well, taking off.

In a paper published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal Physics of Fluids, a pair of physicists simulated the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasting into space.

Rockets aren't responsible for putting that much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

For him, it's the particles contained in rocket exhaust — chiefly alumina and black carbon — that really matter.

Unfortunately, scientists only have a faint understanding of the total environmental impact of a rocket launch. “The current level of data about rocket emissions does not provide researchers with enough information to fully assess the impact of launches on the global environment,” Ross says. .

The researchers behind the new study are bringing the problem into sharper focus by modeling the exhaust from the nine nozzles of a Falcon 9 rocket as it launches into space. These simulations incorporate data about the rocket and its propellant (RP-1) with equations that describe how gases behave under various conditions.

According to their calculations, the amount of exhaust released by a Falcon 9 as it travels between 70 km and 70.99 km (roughly 43 miles) is just one-fourteenth the amount of mass found in one cubic kilometer (roughly .25 mi3) of air at that altitude.

"Perhaps even more crucially, the [amount of] carbon monoxide (CO) and water (H2O) [in rocket exhaust] are of a similar order as carbon dioxide," the authors write.

"We believe that the problem of atmospheric pollution caused by rocket launches is vital and needs to be addressed appropriately as commercial space flights, in particular, are expected to increase in the future," they write.