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Rocket launches may need regulation to prevent ozone destruction
Washington,
April 1 (IANS) Rocket launches in future may require more stringent
regulation to minimise damage to the ozone layer of the Earth's
atmosphere, according to a new study.
Today, just a handful of NASA space shuttle launches release more
ozone-depleting substances in the stratosphere than the entire annual
use of CFC-based medical inhalers used to treat asthma and other
diseases in the US, said Darin Toohey, professor of Colorado University
at Boulder (CUB) atmospheric and oceanic sciences department. The
inhalers have now been banned for their ozone-depleting effect.
"As the rocket launch market grows, so will ozone-destroying rocket
emissions. If left unregulated, rocket launches by the year 2050 could
result in more ozone destruction than was ever realised by CFCs
(chlorofluorocarbons).
"The Montreal Protocol (to safeguard the ozone layer) has left out the
space industry, which could have been included," he said.
The study by CUB and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University provides a
market analysis for estimating future ozone layer depletion based on
the expected growth of the space industry and known impacts of rocket
launches.
Highly reactive trace-gas molecules known as radicals dominate
stratospheric ozone destruction, and a single radical in the
stratosphere can destroy up to 10,000 ozone molecules before being
deactivated and removed from the stratosphere, said a CUB release.
In addition, every type of rocket engine causes some ozone loss, and
rocket combustion products are the only human sources of
ozone-destroying compounds injected directly into the middle and upper
stratosphere where the ozone layer resides.
The study appeared online in March in Astropolitics. |
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