Satellite — Paul Sutton

Potential Ozone Depletion From Satellite Demise

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 18:44:16 +0000

Potential Ozone Depletion From Satellite Demise During Atmospheric Reentry in the Era of Mega-Constellations

Interesting paper that was published in Geophysical research letters looking at potential damage to the Ozone layer from Satellites re-entering the Earths atmosphere and burning up. The specific issue seems to be related to the Aluminium Oxidizing, and then this travels down to the Ozone layer and causes a chemical reaction.

Give the number of Satellites in orbit and the importance of the Already fragile Ozone layer, this is not good news.

You can read the research here

There is a Fediverse discussion here that is quite interesting, I have also started a Science Forums discussion

Update : 2/4/2025: To give an idea what is up in orbit, this graphic is an interactive representation of all the satellites that are up there.
Update June 29 – Satellite collisions cause a chain reaction

Update June 25 – Near-future rocket launches could slow ozone recovery

Update July 3rd – More re-entry stats

Update 3rd July Thousands of satellites are due to burn up in the atmosphere every year – damaging the ozone layer and changing the climate

Tags

#Science,#Space,#Satellite,#ReEntry,#Aluminium,#AlumiumOxide, #Ozone,#Damage,#Research

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Understanding the Atmospheric Effects of Spacecraft Re-entry

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 18:41:29 +0000

Understanding the Atmospheric Effects of Spacecraft Re-entry

This was posted to the Fediverse. The original post from COSPAR, The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR): can be found here

This is an upcoming workshop looking at the environmental impact of spacecraft reentry in to the Earths Atmosphere.

This workshop will address the impact of spacecraft re-entry on the atmosphere. The aim is to bring together atmospheric chemists and physicists, material experts, the space industry, and international space research related organizations to highlight the gaps in our understanding of the modelling and how we can improve testing to obtain relevant data and suggest appropriate mitigation and regulatory measures.

This sounds like a fascinating area of research and discussion, as any exploration of space needs to take into account any environmental impacts.

Understanding the Atmospheric Effects of Spacecraft Re-entry (10-11 January 2024): Overview · Indico at ESA / ESTEC

Workshop information

It will be interesting to learn about the findings and conclusions from this, as it will open up further discussion on the topic(s) raised.

Update June 25

Near-future rocket launches could slow ozone recovery

Links

COSPAR

Tags

#Space,#Conference,#SpaceCraft,,#Reentry,#Atmosphere,#Science,#Satellite

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Satellite — Paul Sutton

Potential Ozone Depletion From Satellite Demise

Understanding the Atmospheric Effects of Spacecraft Re-entry

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