Given that these devices are orbiting in outer space, at first glance it may seem that their environmental impact is going to be quite limited, but nothing could be further from the truth. At some point, the useful life of all artificial satellites ends, and when that happens, fall into the atmosphereoften disintegrating almost completely before reaching the Earth’s surface.
When this happens, the satellite burns, and the materials that make it up cause the release of about 30 kilos of aluminum oxide, in the case of small satellites. In fact, in 2022 alone the fall of satellites may have caused the emission of 17 tons of aluminum oxide particles, with the damage to the ozone layer that this entails. This is stated by the four academic authors of a recent study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
This is no small problem, considering the fact that there are thousands of these devices in orbit, and thousands more devices are expected to be launched into space in the coming years. From giants like Amazon to even Spanish companies like Sateliot, they plan to send satellites into space, in the context of a growing market for the deployment of uninterrupted Internet connection in all parts of the planet.
“The environmental impacts of satellite re-entry are currently poorly understood,” the document warns, encouraging further exploration of this phenomenon “as re-entry rates increase.”
Tons of pollution
According to these researchers from the University of Southern California, once the large satellite constellations scheduled for launch are deployed, these falls of objects into the atmosphere could cause more than 360 tons of aluminum oxide gas per year. The damage to the ozone layer They would only worsen some trends pointed out by the medical community, such as a greater number of skin cancer diagnoses due to the sun’s rays that remain unfiltered, as well as cause damage to agriculture, among others.
As stated in the summary of the text, the scientists found “that the population of satellites that re-entered in 2022 caused a 29.5% increase in aluminum in the atmosphere above the natural level, resulting in around 17 metric tons of aluminum oxides injected into the mesosphere. “Byproducts generated by satellite re-entry in a future scenario where mega-constellations materialize can reach more than 360 metric tons per year.”
Currently, Starlink has more than 6,000 satellites in orbit with which to provide Internet to the entire globe, with permission to launch another 12,000. To these numbers we must add the projected launches of Amazon and other companies.
