The environmental impact of space transport

Abstract

In this paper we will analyze the impact of Russian launch vehicles (LV) Proton and Soyuz on the terrestrial ecosystems of the Central Kazakhstan and Altai-Sayan region. All LV were launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in 2014–2016. The operation of the LV leads to local mechanical, chemical, and pyrogenic effects on the ecosystems of separating stages falling regions (FR).Mechanical disturbances of ecosystems on the Proton first stage falling sites (FS) took the form of soil and vegetation cover damage when the large fragments scattered over an area of 1229 m2 and small fragments scattered over an area of 22,044 m2. The area of vegetation fire reached 245,588 m2, and the leakage of propellant components (nitrogen tetroxide (NT) and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH)) – up to 737 m2. We detected UDMH mainly in the snow of the Proton first stage FS, where its content reached up to 2200 mg/dm3 (the most common range of concentrations was 0.1–0.2 mg/dm3) and in sporadic soil samples it was up to 1.5 mg/kg. In early spring the content of UDMH was 0.09–0.69 mg/kg in the soil, in summer it did not exceed 0.05 mg/kg. In the NT leakage areas content of NO3– increased up to 22.3 g/dm3 in the snow and 24.8 g/kg in the soil. In the places of UDMH leakages, pH value in the snow and soil increased to 10.3 and 9.4, respectively, and the background values varied from 5.1 to 7.9 and from 6.6 to 8.3, respectively. The pollution of snow and soil by NT decreased in pH value to 0.9, and 2.3, respectively.In the cases of Soyuz side blocks, the scattering of FS of large and small fragments reached 325 and 43,627 m2, respectively, the area of vegetation fire – up to 8556 m2, and the leakage of propellant components – to 129 m2. The contents of total petroleum hydrocarbons in places of kerosene T-1 leakage increased to 4354 mg/dm3 in the snow and to 45,167 mg/kg in the soil while background values were 0.03–0.05 mg/dm3 and 5–84 mg/kg, respectively. The operation of the heavy vehicle during the evacuation of fragments of the LV first stage can expand the impact zone several times.In the FR of the Proton and Soyuz second stages the main impact is associated with the mechanical pollution of ecosystems with the fragments of fallen stages. We did not detect chemical transformation in the soil and snow during three years of observation.