How Space Travel Impacts the Energy Industry

For the first time in decades, we’ve entered into a new space race. It feels like everyone is trying to be the first to do something. SpaceX claimed the title of the first commercial company to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, while Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic just recently became the first billionaire to take a ride to the very edge of outer space.

Everyone’s eyes are focused on the horizon as we try to reach the Moon, Mars, and beyond. It gets easy to forget how these massive rocket launches are affecting the planet they’re leaving behind. What sort of impact is space travel having on the energy industry, and how will that impact increase as we move forward?

Rocket Launches and Carbon Footprints

Rocket launches may have us dreaming of life among the stars, but we can’t afford to overlook the impact they’re having right here at home.

Around 95% of a rocket’s weight is fuel, which burns off during launch. While engines based on liquid hydrogen and oxygen, like those found on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), don’t generate lots of greenhouse gasses, SpaceX’s Falcon rockets use liquid kerosene as one of their fuel components. With SpaceX launches ramping up in frequency to the point where they plan to launch every two weeks, the gases these launches generate could contribute to climate change.

Rocket launches also use a massive amount of water to reduce the noise, vibrations, and heat generated by what essentially amounts to a massive controlled explosion. To combat these negative effects, roughly 450,000 gallons of water are released upon ignition, which requires high-pressure, quality pumps in order to power them and prevent massive water loss.

Right now, we don’t have a better way to protect both the rockets and the launch pad from the force of the launch.

The Future of the Energy Industry

The idea of an energy industry has been around for a while, but it didn’t look anything like it does today. We used the sun to keep us warm and the wind to keep us cool. When we discovered fire, it became a tool for heating our homes and cooking food. Water, in addition to being necessary for life, became a tool for grinding flour and even producing power.

It wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution that coal and eventually oil became more common and replaced water and wind as power sources.

We’re still using coal and oil, as well as limited applications of nuclear, solar, and wind generation, to power homes and businesses for billions of people around the globe. One of our biggest challenges now is moving away from petroleum-based power generation and toward cleaner power options that don’t have a severe negative impact on the planet. That’s where space travel might play an important role.

Tapping Into a Galaxy of Resources

We have only glimpsed a fraction of what might exist outside our solar system, but that has already given us a few ideas about how to power the planet without relying on fossil fuels.

Nuclear fusion is something that has been beyond our reach, save for a few examples in labs that aren’t large enough to power anything more than a couple of LED bulbs. If we can get out into the solar system and begin harvesting helium-3, that might change.

Current nuclear fusion testing uses elements like deuterium and tritium. While these work for fusion and emit plenty of energy, they also release radioactive particles. This is the same sort of waste that has led us to move away from nuclear fission for power generation.

But helium-3 doesn’t release any sort of radioactive waste in a fusion reaction. Just 25 tons of helium-3 could potentially power the entire United States for a whole year. Unfortunately, we don’t have 25 tons of helium-3 — and we have to extract it from the lunar surface. Getting out into the solar system, or even just to the Moon and Mars, opens up a whole galaxy of resources for us to explore and utilize.

The Future of Energy Production

The need for clean energy isn’t going away. It will likely grow as the population continues to climb, and we’ll need new and innovative ways to keep the lights on.

That’s where space travel is going to change everything. We won’t be limited to the resources we can find on Earth’s surface anymore. A sufficient supply of helium-3 alone could potentially turn the planet’s energy production on its ear. Imagine what else we might find out there!