Value chain · CLM-0812
In plain terms
A 2020 modelling study of the 1978 NASA/DOE design estimated that its ozone-depleting emissions, almost all from burning rocket fuel at launch and averaged per year over the 60-satellite programme, would be several times the yearly ozone-depleting impact of all human activity in the reference figures it used, and would exceed the planetary safe limit for ozone for the silicon version and come close to it for the gallium-arsenide version.
The claim as recorded
Table 7 expresses the DOE/NASA SPS Reference System's average annual lifecycle impacts as a percentage of the European Commission JRC's Annual Global Impact and Planetary Boundary reference values, and shows ozone depletion potential, attributed almost exclusively to ClOx, NOx and HOx released by cryogenic propellant combustion during HLLV and PLV launch events, at 480.33 per cent of AGI and 143.74 per cent of PB for the silicon option, and 300.21 per cent of AGI and 89.84 per cent of PB for the gallium arsenide option.
Scope and limits
The percentages are against the European Commission JRC's AGI and PB reference values only, not a US-specific or post-2020 baseline, and the absolute reference values behind them are not printed in the source. They are programme-average ANNUAL values over 2040-2100, not per-satellite and not per-launch-event figures. Table 7 covers 10 of the paper's 18 impact categories (Table 5, p9); the other eight, among them mineral resource depletion and human toxicity, have no AGI or PB value in the source (s5.3, p11; the s3.3 list on p6 names seven of them and omits mineral resource depletion), so ODP's prominence relative to those cannot be ranked from this source. This is ozone depletion, a different impact category from global warming potential; the two may never be merged or traded off in a single figure.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
p12: "The results indicate that ODP is a particular hotspot of the DOE/NASA SPS Reference System. This is almost exclusively due to the release of ClOx, NOx and HOx emissions from the burning of cryogenic propellant during launch event of the HLLV and PLV (particularly resulting from the LOX/CH4 formulation)." Table 7 ODP row: Si AGI 480.33%, Si PB 143.74%, Ga AGI 300.21%, Ga PB 89.84%.
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-008 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0812
CLM-0812, Energy Aperture, as of 2020.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-212
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