Ionospheric interaction
How a high-power beam heats the ionosphere on its way down, and the power density at which that heating becomes significant.
This area is studied in more depth than the rest of the value chain. It spans one layer, with 157 published records between them.
Where each layer stands
Environment and lifecycle impact
Headline carbon figures for recent designs are low but incomplete. NASA's 2024 study gives 26 and 40 grams of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt-hour (gCO2e/kWh) for its two designs. NASA says these may be similar to terrestrial renewables, at 13 to 43, pending further studies. It attributes 64 to 72% of its totals to launch, though two other assessments of an older design put launch far lower (CLM-0125). A UK roadmap study models 23.6 gCO2e/kWh, averaged over 2022 to 2080 (CLM-0832). NASA leaves out the upper-atmosphere effects of launch emissions (CLM-0125). The UK study leaves out black carbon and aluminium oxide from rocket exhaust (CLM-0834). It finds ozone depletion at 32% of a planetary-boundary reference value set by the European Commission, almost all from launch. Comparing against that value is the authors' choice, and it is not a legal limit (CLM-0837). For the 1978 US reference design, the choice of carbon-accounting method changed the result about five to six times (CLM-0182). One survey found no experiment that has measured self-focusing heating of the ionosphere, the electrically charged upper atmosphere, at 2.45 GHz (CLM-0030).
Layers in this area
| Layer | Covers | Target | Reached | Records |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| XC03 Environment and lifecycle impact | Lifecycle greenhouse gas, launch emissions, land and ecological effects, atmospheric effects, the shared debris environment | L3 | L2 | 173 |
The record count is every record tagged to that layer, not the number published. What the depth levels mean.