Sixty-two years ago, President John F. Kennedy gave his renowned speech about the nation’s future goals for the space program. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard!” exclaimed President Kennedy. At the time, the claim of going to the moon was almost like a bluff, a goal that seemed utterly impossible. With years of countless arduous experiments and developments and money spent, only few advancements in the space program were made, making everyone doubt the fact that the journey to the moon was even possible. Yet, a few decades later, all these problems seem like an ease to us. Through the developments in technology and countless innovations in rocketry designs, space exploration has transcended the imaginations of people, allowing us to explore the depths of space in a green and sustainable way.
Even though our technology might still be distant from our goal of living on other planets or galaxies, the implementation of green and sustainable advances will eventually lead us there. On October 13, 2024, SpaceX caught the booster of the first fully reusable rocket on its fifth test flight. Starship, the new recyclable SpaceX rocket, has twice the engine power of the Saturn V rocket, the rocket that helped the Apollo 11 crew to land on the moon in 1969. Starship is also able to carry more than 200 metric tons of goods, enabling crew members to have ample resources throughout their space journey. Perhaps most importantly, the booster of Starship, named Super Heavy, is completely reusable and automated to return to its base after boosting the crew out of the atmosphere. By controlling its descent speed from the speed of sound all the way to a stop, Super Heavy is able to be controlled with ease, allowing the process of reusing to be much easier.
To begin with, recycling rockets will reduce the environmental burdens of our planet. According to statistics, a typical space shuttle would produce hundreds of kilograms of Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) per launch. UDMH is a colorless and yet toxic liquid that is released after the rocket launches deep into the soil, where the liquid has the potential to cause ecological disasters and even threaten our water supply if it seeps into groundwater. Further, hundreds of space debris are produced on average per rocket launch where the pieces range from less than one millimeter to larger than one meter, which could cause obstruction and damage to future space exploration. The difference between the traditional space shuttle and Starship is that Starship incorporates a fuel of liquid oxygen and methane rather than UDMH, meaning that pollution will be reduced to a minimum during takeoffs. In addition, the recyclable trait that Starship has will make the space program much more sustainable by producing zero space debris, clearing the way for future rockets.
It is also important to note the economic benefits of rocketry recycling. Some opponents of the SpaceX idea believed that the cost wouldn’t be worth it in the long term as it involves privatizing space travel rather than being a complete government program. However, the truth is that by recycling and privatizing, it reduces the burden that the government and the society have to bear. For instance, the cost per launch of Starship is around 100 million dollars while the cheaper Falcon 9 rocket developed by SpaceX is estimated to cost only 62 million dollars per launch. However, NASA’s space shuttle programs cost approximately 1.5 billion dollars per launch, which is almost 15 times as much as Starship. Also, from a historical point of view, the original space shuttle program that NASA adopted shut down after 2011 due to the financial issues, causing the U.S. to be dependent on Russia for future space programs. By adopting Starship the average cost would eventually be brought down and to be even less than the Falcon 9 rocket at a certain point, creating a sustainable long-term plan.
By recycling, the hundreds of millions of dollars can be saved and used for further research, speeding up the developments of new technology. For instance, after NASA’s space shuttle program got shut down due to financial issues. Dragon, a small reusable capsule by SpaceX that was already under development before the NASA shutdown was used to carry cargo between NASA and the ISS. Eventually, this program was refined, and by 2019, the capsule was made to contain the capacity for seven passengers and cargo at the same time, allowing the US to monitor its space program without extreme financial spendings. Simultaneously, the Falcon 9, which costs less than five percent that of the original space shuttle, is also developed by SpaceX which could be partially reused. In less than two years, this rocket model is turned to a fully reusable version, Starship, and this could probably suggest an exponential trend in technical advancements in the next few years.
Overall, the adaptation from our traditional space shuttle to something innovative and sustainable could be the factor that determines our future. In the long term, pushing this sustainable effort consistently will benefit us by keeping our home in a fresh and clean state while also balancing the development of technology efficiently. With this new innovation, Starship, our dreams of exploring foreign planets and making space exploration for everyone could finally be within reach, allowing us the chance to explore more of what is in our galaxy.
