NOAA detected metals in the atmosphere mainly associated with Spacex. The White House has liquidated its research

The United States Government has just truncated One of the most intriguing research on spatial pollution. A decision that, according to some suspicious voices, is beneficial for the commercial interests of Elon Musk.

The latest Trump. In the absence of budgets being approved in Congress, the White House seeks to eliminate the financing of two key research projects on contamination caused by rockets and satellites.

The plan is part of the drastic cuts that, along with NASAhas suffered the scientific arm of the National Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research of the United States: the NOAA.

A striking finding. At the end of 2023, US atmospheric researchers discovered a growing accumulation of metals in the stratosphere. A team led by NOAA analyzed the sulfuric acid particles sampled by the NASA WB-57 plane on flights of great altitude over Alaska and the western media. He study He identified more than 20 different elements, including lithium, aluminum, copper and other more exotic metals, such as niobium and hafnium.

These materials are not found naturally in the atmosphere. They are linked to the space industry, and therefore, they were associated with the increasingly frequent redeeme of rockets and satellites, which vaporize exorbiting. The scope of the problem is still unknown. It is feared, for example, that an exponential increase can damage the ozone layer, which acts as a shield against ultraviolet rays, further destabilizing the climate.

Goodbye to research. NOAA’s efforts to solve these doubts were already underway. On the one hand, a continuity study to take new atmospheric samples. On the other, a workshop in which the private industry participated to explore possible solutions. Both remain without federal financing with the cuts, which will force them to cancel them if the budgets are approved.

Although the White House has proposed all kinds of science cuts, the PUBLUEPLOYEES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY Organization spokesman said The Guardian That in this case “there is a political motivation”, relating NOAA’s work with the commercial interests of Elon Musk.

The Spacex factor. There had never been so many satellite releases because there had never been a rocket capable of landing on their legs. Elon Musk’s aerospace company puts more than 80% of the payload launched to space, in terms of mass. Almost all are satellites of the Starlink constellation, which has become a strategic asset for the United States.

Spacex has launched about 8,400 Starlink satellitesof which 1,080 have already reentred. Although Starlink is the largest constellation, other companies have similar plans to launch tens of thousands of satellites to the low terrestrial orbit; Among them, several Chinese startup and the Amazon technological giant, with its satellite internet project Kuiper. In total, the number of satellites in orbit could grow up to 100,000 in the coming years. And with it, the number of atmospheric reentradas.

And so every five years. Spacex satellites and the incipient Kuiper constellation orbit the land less than 600 km altitude. Due to the effect of atmospheric braking, they reduce their height and end up burning in the atmosphere five years after its launch. Also the rockets, including the upper stage of Falcon 9, exorbitita to disintegrate in the atmosphere.

This is the desirable: that the Space garbage “recycle” in the shortest possible time. But the cadence of launches, headed by Starlink, is producing several resentments per day, that will soon become dozenand then in hundreds. The effect of these daily metal injections in the atmosphere is something that other countries will now have to investigate, at least with public funds.

Image | Caribbean Astronomy Society

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