PHASA-35 — BAE
Last month, a giant, skeletal-looking aircraft flew over New Mexico. It soared up into the stratosphere, way above any jet or cloud. There it stayed, powered by its solar panel clad wings. While this bizarre craft might look like a scaled-up version of yesteryear’s balsa wood flying toy planes, it is actually at the cutting edge of what is possible. In fact, this plane has the potential to overthrow the space industry. But how?
Let’s start with a bit of a sore topic, satellite carbon emissions. Our modern world depends on satellites; they provide the data we use in climate models and weather forecasting, monitor environmental damage, and can even track methane and carbon emissions. As such, they are crucial to our efforts to save the planet. They are also vital for our modern life, providing us with TV, internet access and GPS.
So it sucks that they have utterly gigantic carbon emissions!
Take one of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. These are launched with Falcon 9 rockets, which emit a staggering 336,552 kg of carbon dioxide per launch! This will get a payload of 22,800 kg into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The Starlink satellites are small and light for satellite standards, weighing only 260 kg. But if you do the maths, that means that each satellite takes worth 3,838 kg of carbon emissions just to get into orbit. Now, the entire Starlink constellation isn’t yet complete. There are holes in its global coverage, and it does struggle to provide bandwidth, so Musk wants to launch loads more. But there are already over 4,000 in orbit! This means that just the launch emissions of Starlink alone amount to over 15.4 million kg of carbon dioxide.
As a side note, this is one of the many reasons why many serious climate scientists, activists, journalists and policymakers don’t see Musk as the climate saviour many perceive him to be.
But there is a better way, Pseudo-satellites. Super high-altitude, solar-powered drones that can stay aloft indefinitely and carry out all the same services and data collection tasks as satellites. In fact, in certain situations, they can be even more efficient than satellites.
