Applying the Principles of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to Space

Applying the Principles of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to Space

By its very nature, spaceflight is very challenging and very wasteful.

As Tsiolkovsky's famous Rocket Equation establishes, propellant accounts for the majority of a rocket's mass, which is burned off during launch. The process also introduces large amounts of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, and black carbon, as well as ozone-depleting chemicals, into the upper atmosphere.

And with the rapid growth of commercial launch services and the proliferation of satellite constellations, the situation is only likely to get worse. In a recent paper, a group of sustainability and space scientists addressed this problem and considered how the principles of reducing, reusing, and recycling could be applied to satellites and spacecraft throughout their lifecycles.

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