Scientists Warn Starlink Could Screw Up the Ozone Layer

To be clear: SpaceX’s Starlink service can be a game changer for those completely out of range of broadband access. Getting several hundred megabits per second in the middle of nowhere is a decidedly good thing, assuming you can afford the $120 a month subscription cost and up front hardware costs.

But contrary to what many press outlets imply, it’s not magic. And it comes with a growing list of caveats.

The technology has been criticized for harming astronomical research via light pollution. Starlink customer service is largely nonexistent. It’s too expensive for the folks most in need of reliable broadband access. The nature of satellite physics and capacity means slowdowns and annoying restrictions are inevitable. And the company was caught abusing taxpayer subsidies to get money it didn’t deserve.

Now some scientists warn that the steady parade of smaller low-Earth orbit satellites constantly burning up in orbit could release chemicals that could undermine the progress we’ve made repairing the ozone layer. Researchers at the University of Southern California’s Department of Astronautical Engineering issued a press statement explaining the challenges in greater detail (study here):

“Aluminum oxides spark chemical reactions that destroy stratospheric ozone, which protects Earth from harmful UV radiation. The oxides don’t react chemically with ozone molecules, instead triggering destructive reactions between ozone and chlorine that deplete the ozone layer. Because aluminum oxides are not consumed by these chemical reactions, they can continue to destroy molecule after molecule of ozone for decades as they drift down through the stratosphere.”

Much like concerns about space garbage, regulators generally have been so innovation cooed that they haven’t thought much about this. Starlink alone is slated to launch 42,000 low Earth orbit satellites, and other companies like Amazon are expected to soon join the parade. All of these cheaper, smaller satellites have less than a five year life span, so they’ll be consistently falling back to Earth.

The scientists found that satellites re-entering Earth orbit have already increased aluminum in the atmosphere by 29.5% over natural levels. They also say that by the time satellite constellations are complete, every year, 1,005 U.S. tons of aluminum will fall to Earth, releasing 397 U.S. tons of aluminum oxides per year to the atmosphere, an increase of 646% over natural levels.

Stripping away the Earth’s protection from harmful UV radiation is, to be clear, bad.

You might recall that the Trump administration tried to give Musk’s Starlink nearly a billion dollars in subsidies in exchange for delivering Starlink to some traffic medians and airport parking lots. The Biden FCC backtracked on a large chunk of those awards, noting that if taxpayers are going to fund broadband expansion, they should prioritize non-capacity constrained, affordable fiber access as much as possible.

Telecom experts say truly “bridging the digital divide” mostly involves deploying fiber as deeply into rural America as is practical, then filling in the remaining gaps with 5G and fixed wireless. Increasingly that’s involving communities building their own open access fiber networks to spur competition, whether a municipal network, cooperative, public-private partnership, or extension of the city’s electrical utility.

Services like Starlink certainly do play a niche role in this quest to fill in whatever access gaps remain (especially during emergencies or military campaigns), but it’s a growing question whether the growing list of trade offs are going to be worth it.