It isn't Easy Being Green and Getting to LEO

Posted by timothy on Monday August 8, 2005 @10:00AM from the see-those-aren't-naturally-compatible dept.

MWTJ writes "The BBC has a story about the environmental impact of the space shuttle. One of the things that started the modern environmentalist movement were pictures of the Earth from space, so we could see the beauty of the planet as never before. We could also see environmental destruction from space. But what is the impact of the space program on our planet? The story talks about the switch to Freon-free insulation, the use of clean-burning hydrogen/LOX fuel, and other factors. What else could be done to get to space with minimal harm to the planet?"

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Re:A drop in the ocean? by sconeu · 2005-08-08 10:12 · Score: 1, Redundant

Upgrading a $1.7B shuttle to make those launches more earth-friendly led directly to the Columbia disaster. They changed the formulation of the foam for the ET.

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General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.