Изменение климата поставит под угрозу запуск спутников

Greenhouse gas emissions could affect future satellite запускает, new research suggests. As they accumulate, the pollution causes Earth’s upper atmosphere to compress, potentially increasing the risk of satellite collisions in orbit.

It’s another way fossil fuel emissions are having a significant impact on the things people rely on every day, especially as telecommunications companies launch mega-constellations of satellites into orbit. Space is proving to be a finite resource that will need to be better managed as climate change makes it even more limited, the study authors say.

“We’ve really reached the end of the ‘space is big’ era, and I think we need to stop saying that,” says William Parker, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lead author of the study, published today in the journal Nature Sustainability. “People don’t realize that the issue of space sustainability is an issue that affects them directly.”

Greenhouse gas emissions trap heat in the lower atmosphere, raising the average global temperature on Earth. Another side effect is that less heat reaches the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere, and what heat does reach the upper layers of the atmosphere is more easily dissipated into space. This causes the upper atmosphere to cool and contract. Parker says you can think of it as a balloon contracting if you put it in a freezer.

Humans rely on the strong atmosphere to eventually pull down dead satellites and other orbital debris, most of which eventually burns up as it falls through the atmosphere. But as the atmosphere becomes less dense, it reduces the drag on space debris, allowing it to stay in orbit longer—and extending the life span it needs to collide with other objects.

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