state, there will be one launch failure every two day when you want to launch 10 HLLVs per day. Total weight of HLLV would be 8,000 ton with 450 ton of payload on LEO. Can you imagine such situations? Pollution Effect on Biota Air Pollution The main effects of many launches from Solar Satellite Power Program to biota are related to air pollution, thermal dissipation, and noise. Air pollution caused by launches becomes continuous when you plan 10 launches of HLLV per day. There will be formation and dispersion of a “ground cloud” made of exhaust gases and some sand and dust. Becaue of the low altitude of the cloud., people living near the launch site will be exposed directly to the cloud. The Committee on Toxicology of the National Academy of Science (NAS)/National Research Council (NRC) have recommended exposure limits [White, 1980]. The NAS/NRC recommendations include a short-term public limit (STPL), designed to avoid an irritation of the moist mucous membrane of the upper respiratory track, and a public emergency limit (PEL) related to accident conditions that might result in some irritation but with reversible effects. It is thought that launches of a solar power system ground-cloud concentrations would probably be far beyond the STPL and PEL values because , according to the launch condition stated before, there will be one HLLV launch every ten day at the same launch site. However, quantitative information related to the HLLV launch is of course not available at present. We must make further investigations on the influence of the ground cloud. The organizations responsible for the huge plans such as Solar Satellite Power Program must follow the advice coming from research on the effect of pollutants including the contents of ground cloud. Thermal Effects Thermal power released from the HLLV is in the order of 103 GW. It is considerably high power rate, but duration time of burning only 100-200 seconds. If we assume 100 of HLLV launch, the average power only 0.63 GW. This heat source corresponds to a typical small scale oil burning power generation station. It may affect local whether. It is not likely to have serious effect on local whether. Therefore, we can avoid serious thermal effects by choosing launch site appropriately. Noise Effects The main source of launch noise is the turbulence in exhaust. Other noise mechanisms may be present in a rocket engine, but they can be neglected. A preliminary evaluation of the noise impact of launching a solar power satellite system has been done [White, 1980]. In the report, there are suggested some negative effects of noise, which are as follows: Hearing Damage The official requirement in US for maximum exposure is 115 dB. According to the results of preliminary research, a potential hazard would exist within 1500 m from launch point. Using more strict technique employed by EPA, it should not exceed 70 dB. In this case, the range of potential hearing hazard would extend to 3,000 m. Therefore, all space center personnel would require hearing protection devices. Speech Interference The speech interference effects of the launch would be minimal since the duration of the intense noise is short. However, during launch itself and for at least 2 minutes thereafter, some speech interference would be present. It is thought that the duration of noise would not be long enough to severely impact the community surrounding the launch site. Sleep interference The possibility of sleep disturbance exists for distances as great as 30,000 m from the launch site. However, this effect will vary depending on the person, and also the background noise will influence the degree of sleep interference. All of the considerations on biological effects described above are from the viewpoint of a large scale solar power satellite program. In the case of some small scale demonstration projects, the effects of launches will be negligible and insignificant.
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