Can Space Exploration Cause Global Warming?

Question

By sending parts of the earth's mass to space in forms of satelites, probes, space stations, fuels being burned for the space crafts, and etc..

I am sure before man ventured the outer realms of earth, all the mass on earth remained constant regardless.. but now due to the accelerated space tech, the earth's mass is reducing at an unknown rate, and thus it must certainly effect its orbit around the sun.

With the current rise in global warming.. could it be possible that due to the earth's decreasing mass, the earth's orbit around the sun changed in a way that it can alter the temperature or even water levels here on earth?

Thank you to anyone who can answer this..

Answer 1

99% of all space craft don't really leave the earth most of the fuel and much of the craft fall back to earth. Most craft are low orbit and even the satellite itself will eventually fall back to Earth

High orbit Geostationary and deep space and probes to the moon and other planets usually don't come back.

The above would be more than offset by the ~3,000,000 meteors that have hit the Earth in the last 25 years these are mostly tiny, 1 or 2 up around 10m hit the atmosphere each year things of this size make a big enough bang in the upper atmosphere to be recorded by U.S. Air force equipment. Scientific estimates put the amount of dust falling to the Earth each year as 18,000 to 25,000 tons, much more than any craft  leaving the Earth.

Answer 2

If you look at the latest stats from NASA, it shows that we're actually tending towards a cooling period again.  Of course, not even our top scientists are sure of any climate changes we're experiencing.  They can't even predict the weather a week in advance with any real accuracy.

It's sad though.  I wish we did have control over the weather. I was hoping the warming period would last a little longer. I guess we just have to roll with the punches as all life on this planet has done for millions of years.

Answer 3

the mass of the spacecraft lifted into space is a only the smallest fraction of a fraction of the mass of the earth.

The mass of the atmosphere is actually greater in mass than all of the c**p we put into space, and thats not even counting the mass of the earth itself, which is extremely large.

I dont think it has an effect on the mass of the earth on any significant level.  Shouldnt effect the weather or position of the earth relative to the sun either.

Answer 4

God I hope so!  Go NASA!!!  My swanky resorts in Siberia will be all the rage in what? 10 years?  Ye haw!  We are looking at land now, but the damned reindeer and harp seals are causing us problems with our environmental impact statement... if NASA can heat things up for us, perhaps those pesky seals will head some place else.  I've heard a lot of theories about global warming, but this is the first one that brings in this outer worldly perspective.  If NASA and the other nations space programs keep it up, they will be able to use those satellites to  watch me and Tipper Gore frolic on the beaches of Arkhangelsk while Al is passed out in the cabana!

Answer 5

Actually, this was the subject of an episode of futurama.  In the third melinium, the problem of global warming will be fixed by moving the earth further from the sun.

Answer 6

The mass of all the stuff ever launched off Earth by humans is so small that you can safely call it zero. I think more air molecules escape to space naturally from the upper atmosphere than all the molecules in all the rockets ever launched.

Any global warming effects would be from greenhouse gasses in rocket exhaust that stays in the atmosphere. But since there are so few rockets compared to airplanes and cars and trains and factories, that rocket exhaust can also be considered as essentially zero contribution to global warming. There are less than 50 rockets launched world wide every year. There are more airplane flights than that every minute, and more car trips every second.