[1] https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs095-01/fs095-01.html#:~:text=EPA%....
[2] https://www.worldometers.info/coal/coal-consumption-by-count...
It will be a fitting irony if humankind lowers its IQ below the point where it can remediate its mistakes.
Starlink thrusters use krypton,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink
edit: If you look at the text of the legal complaint, the only mention of SpaceX mercury is a *pure hypothetical*:
https://peer.org/wp-content/uploads/attachments/11_19_18_FCC...
- "If a corporation such as SpaceX, OneWeb, or another major space company were to deploy an entire proposed LEO constellation with cheaper and more powerful mercury-fueled thrusters on-board, they could be launching as much as 198 tonnes of mercury into orbit, which will then be fired off into the upper atmosphere."
Something makes me uneasy though: a radical, risky innovation that could significantly reduce operational costs albeit at an environmental cost to be paid at a later date and/or even used as a point of leverage? It feels plausible (and dangerous) enough to warrant inquiry and consideration.
The thread is about a law firm that got a un resolution passed to ban the use of mercury as a satellite propellant, on the basis of a company that used it in their thrusters, that was in the process of selling the tech to spacex.
What it doesn’t say:
* whether spacex bought it or not
* whether spacex ever used it or not
* whether spacex still plans to use it or not
… and if I’m reading it right, it sounds like the resolution was passed, which ought to mean that spacex doesn’t plan to use it, because that’d be a violation of un treaty.
"Apollo tested several fuel types and found that if the corrosive effects of mercury on the spacecraft could be controlled, and they could keep the use of mercury secret, the ACE could seriously outperform its competitors indefinitely. To date, no other electric propulsion thruster can match the efficiency or power of the ACE, and leading experts in the plasma and fusion fields are convinced that Apollo has made a miraculous breakthrough because they all assume that the ACE uses xenon as a fuel source."
Xenon is a later invention, revealed in public only after the fall of the soviet union.
