How green is space travel?

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The images beamed back to Earth of the first civilian spacewalk have prompted a very pertinent question from one Inside Science listener:

What effect is space travel having on our climate?

We're used to delving into the carbon footprint of Earth-bound travel – so this week we’re going to explore the impact of the rapidly growing space industry on our climate.

How does a rocket launch compare to a flight taking off? Do we even know the true cost yet – and if it’s significant, what might the solution be?

Also on the programme, a personal perspective from a remote island on worrying seabird declines, the results of a project to refreeze Arctic sea ice, and why new evidence unearthed about the Falkland Islands suggests it may once have looked very different...

Presenter: Vic Gill Producers: Ella Hubber & Gerry Holt Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Andrew Rhys Lewis Studio Manager: Rhys Morris

BBC Inside Science is produced in partnership with the Open University.

If you want to test your climate change knowledge, head to bbc.co.uk - search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to the Open University.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.
0:06.0	I'm Siddhartha Cesset, an assistant commissioner of Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:11.0	I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of
0:13.7	podcasts on all sorts of subjects, relationships, identity, comedy, even one
0:18.9	that mixes poetry, music and inner city life. So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next
0:26.1	fact checking, a feature and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its
0:31.5	audience and maybe that's you. So if you like this
0:34.6	podcast check out some others on BBC Sounds.
0:39.4	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts.
0:43.0	Hello lovely people and welcome to BBC Inside Science.
0:47.0	I'm Victoria Gill.
0:48.0	Today we're taking an unexpected journey into a warming world
0:52.0	that will take us from prehistoric forests into orbit
0:55.0	via one of the coldest places on Earth. When we told the story of the first ever
0:59.5	civilian spacewalk a couple of weeks ago, it peaked the interest of a particularly curious-minded
1:04.8	inside science listener who emailed to ask, why do we so often hear about the carbon
1:09.3	footprint of earth-bound vehicles but nothing about pollution from extra planetary transportation.
1:15.0	So today we're putting the climate costs of the growing space industry under the microscope.
1:20.0	And to help with that I'm joined by Eloise Morey, who leads the Atmospheric Composition and Air Quality
1:25.5	Research Group at University College London, and by Richard Lowe, who is Chief Technology
1:30.3	Officer at Satellite Applications Cataport.
1:33.0	That's an organization that was set up to help boost the growth of the UK space industry.
	...

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