Elon Musk only needs to sell 59 Tesla cars to overcome environmental consequences after a SpaceX launch

Tram Ho

Elon Musk is an interesting character. We do not always understand what this billionaire is up to. For example, many people think that his management of both SpaceX and Tesla is rather contradictory. Some say Musk is diversifying the business. Others say what he is doing is misleading.

On one hand, Tesla’s mission is to inspire a new era of clean energy means and solutions, thereby improving the world we live in. SpaceX, on the other hand, looks like a ticket for humans to leave the world. What’s more, a SpaceX ship launch usually produces large amounts of CO2 – the exact opposite of what Tesla is trying to aim for. What a hassle!

With SpaceX recently successfully launching the Crew Dragon, and Tesla cars becoming more and more popular, you will probably ask the question: How many EVs (electric cars) Tesla needs to sell to compensate for the damage. about the environment due to a SpaceX launch? And where will the consequences of SpaceX launch be in the hierarchy of environmental concerns?

Let’s look at some of the most interesting figures to see if we can draw anything. We will use the figures for SpaceX’s Falcon 9, as they are numerous and have been analyzed in great detail. And so the “testing” we are conducting here is only intended to make “general” assessments of the SpaceX launches.

Elon Musk chỉ cần bán 59 chiếc Tesla là đủ khắc phục hậu quả môi trường sau một vụ phóng tàu SpaceX - Ảnh 1.

First, space rockets burn huge amounts of kerosene (rocket fuel) each time they are launched. According to an article by HuffPost in 2017, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket burned about 112,000 liters of kerosene in each launch. It sounds like a lot, but an Olympic pool can hold up to 2.5 million liters of water!

Transferring 112,000 liters of kerosene to the mass, it would be approximately 90,000 kg . The Falcon 9 rocket also uses liquid oxygen in the fuel system, and does not use carbon.

So where does CO2 come from? Carbon comes from kerosene (hydrocarbons), and according to many technical documents, 1 kg of kerosene produces 3 kg of CO2. When kerosene is burned, it combines with oxygen to create CO2, making it heavier than the original fuel.

As such, it is easy to calculate the amount of CO2 produced from burning the other fuel. The number we have is: 270,000 kg CO2.

How many Tesla cars are needed to compensate for environmental damage?

Next, let’s see what Tesla can do to reduce CO2 emissions from cars, as it encourages people to abandon vehicles using internal combustion engines and switch to EVs.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, an average passenger car emits 4,600 kg of CO2 annually.

In other words, a SpaceX launch produces about the equivalent of 59 cars on internal combustion engines in a year. You can see how much CO2 the car produces every year!

Over the past 10 years, SpaceX has launched 89 Falcon 9 launches – that’s about 9 times per year. Thus, the amount of CO2 they generate each year is equivalent to about 529 cars. Honestly, we all think that this number is much higher than that!

If only considering the emissions aspect, Musk will have to convince 530 drivers (or more) to stop using gasoline cars and switch to Tesla cars for a year (based on the assertion that EV does not release emissions. when driving) to offset the amount of CO2 produced by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launches for a year.

Elon Musk chỉ cần bán 59 chiếc Tesla là đủ khắc phục hậu quả môi trường sau một vụ phóng tàu SpaceX - Ảnh 2.

Tesla will only sell more than 367,000 cars globally in 2019 – but you should know that once you drive a Tesla, most drivers will never think of returning to a car using an internal combustion engine after just one year. . It seems that Tesla clearly did too well, and more than enough, to offset the carbon emissions from SpaceX launches when taking into account emissions.

If enough time is available, and if access to sensitive data is available, we will be able to see exactly how much Tesla needs to be sold to compensate for the environmental impact of the expedition’s missions. SpaceX cause. But at the present time, it seems that considering the global CO2 emissions, the SpaceX launches are actually only a very small portion.

Whether we can continue to explore space without concern about producing CO2 in the process is a difficult question to answer. Although rockets produce a lot of CO2, through observing and studying the world from space, we can uncover many problems that can help overcome this situation in the long run ahead.

If anything can be drawn from the above, then it is: it’s time to seriously think about limiting the use of gasoline cars and moving to other forms of eco-friendly transportation. more school already.

Reference: TheNextWeb

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Source : Genk