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Matti Järvinen

Megaconstellations like Starlink will increase atmospheric aluminum oxide amounts to 646% over natural levels ( +360 metric tons / year ).

It will take up to 30 years for the aluminum oxides to drift down to stratospheric altitudes, where 90% of Earth's ozone is located.

Once there aluminum oxide will act as a catalyst with chlorine harming the ozone layer.

phys.org/news/2024-06-satellit

Phys.org · Satellite 'megaconstellations' may jeopardize recovery of ozone holeBy Science X

@nemeciii
Ok, now we are talking. (That whole "night sky pollution" arguments were quite poor.)

@nemeciii

Something tells me that Musk does not care about this, I will take a proper read later but it is worrying we are storing so much up for our own kids and grandkids in the future.

@nemeciii
Can this be mitigated?

Could some aluminum be replaced with steel, titanium, carbon fiber or whatever? Which materials cause least ozone depletion?

Is it possible to dump the sattelites in the ocean intact? Maybe with an ablative heat shield? This could become easier with the new larger starlink v2 sats planned to launch on starship. Of course that requires good deorbit control, one of those slamming into your house would embadden your day.

@notsoloud @nemeciii seems it would likely increase the cost and that is something no self-respecting billionaire can tolerate.

@notsoloud @nemeciii There are demonstration satellites using wood in place of some aluminum: nature.com/articles/d41586-024

But only so much metal can be substituted: Antennas have to be metal, large antennas & solar panels create stress points where they connect to the central spacecraft bus; everything is being heat cycled; etc.

It is far easier to stop letting corporations unilaterally make a mess of the sky.

(And, no, SpaceX's Starships having recently stopped blowing up does not change that).

www.nature.comWorld's first wooden satellite could herald era of greener space explorationJapan’s satellite will test wood's resilience in space — wooden Moon shelters are also planned.

@nemeciii

We've been played, with all the publicity of the "reusable rocket" shit, and somehow we've allowed our atmosphere to become the dustbin for space exploitation. Well, I suppose we are using the entire planet as a disposable habitation. If only we had another...

@nemeciii Quite simply, the world cannot afford Elon Musk.

@nemeciii

The concept of recycling still seems to be some kind of magical gadget.

@nemeciii

Our species is hellbent on self-destructing.

@nemeciii @sundogplanets

Maybe that's the intention! By ruining a naturally habitable planet, it drives up the real-estate value of his Martian holdings.

youtu.be/lwISbJfRNz0?si=24BGE6

@nemeciii who needs an ozone layer anyway haha
hope we can still get sunscreen in 30 years

@elexia well actually, we'd be all dead or living underground if the action against CFC gases wasn't so swift in the 80's.

Plant life and animals would have been killed by now due to extremely high UV radiation levels.

@nemeciii

s/: knows why setting on and beyond might be the only option for mankind:

Not only do his rockets contribute to and are the spaceship launches detrimental to the ozone layer.
No, as if this weren't enough, plethora of ** satellites will destroy a big part of what will be left of it, one they fall back onto Earth, 30y tops:

mastodon.social/@nemeciii/1126

*In case you missed it:
mastodon.social/@HistoPol/1114

@nemeciii @sundogplanets And here I had used the ozone hole as an example of environmental action that worked. Of course we’re going to damage that too.

@nemeciii So we could win the fight against carbon emissions just to be done over a short time later by aluminium?