La Science CQFD - Debris, atmospheric impacts, and system dynamics

In Tuesday’s episode of La Science CQFD on France Culture, dedicated to pollution in the space industry, I was interviewed for a report to broaden the discussion. Often, the conversation is narrowed down solely to the issue of debris; I contributed elements regarding the impacts of launches and reentries on the upper atmosphere.

Since the report’s format (6 minutes) necessarily involves some simplification, I am adding a few clarifications here.

Studying these upper atmosphere impacts requires complex climate and atmospheric chemistry models. The modeling approach I discuss in the show and apply to the space sector system dynamics (famously used in the 1972 Limits to Growth report) does not aim to improve knowledge of atmospheric effects themselves. Instead, it allows us to integrate them into a global vision by establishing links with other environmental issues of space activities, such as space debris and light pollution, and by analyzing their joint dynamics.

A major benefit of this approach is that it demonstrates the conflicts between mitigation measures designed to address each of these problems. For this reason, I mentioned the competition between orbital cleanup and atmospheric protection. As Christophe BONNAL points out later in the show, the latter also competes with protecting human life from debris fallout on the ground.

Other, less obvious conflicts add to these examples. Together, they turn the quest for “integral” sustainability of space activities into an insoluble puzzle… unless we shift toward a more sober model.

My research works mentioned here have now been published. See: here (full study) and here (study on space debris).