unburned propellants and propellant gases will affect the atmosphere, and large quantities of flight stage and satellite system assembly hardware will be ejected (Ref. A4, A5) . In orbit transfer to GEO, particularly if heavy metal ion electric propulsion is employed, the ionosphere may be affected significantly after many flights, but insufficient information is available to assess this (Ref. A5, All). Similarly, any large quantities of gas or ion stationkeeping and attitude control propellants could have effects of consequence at the synchronous GEO altitude (Ref. All). Limited information from presently available conservative studies appears to indicate that some effects in the boost and transfer phases may be particularly significant (Ref. A5). For example, for 360 shuttle launches per year, up to a 2% increment in H^O may accrue in the 25-30 mile (40-50 km) altitude range,* with much lower percentage increments at lower altitudes. Some effects on the ozone layer may result, but they would be considerably less than those produced by the fleet of 500 SST's once thought to threaten the ozone (Ref. A2). NO^ emissions and products due to shock and plume temperature effects also do not appear to be of great consequence (Ref. A2). A flux of 0.01 x 10$ tons (0.009 x 10$ metric tons) per year into the stratosphere has been estimated (Ref. A2), as compared to a natural flux of 0.22 to 2.2 x 6 6 10 tons (0.2 to 2 x 10 metric tons), and a potential flux due to 500 SST's of 1.3 to 4 x 10^ tons (1.2 to 3.6 x 10^ metric tons). Other propulsion products such as HC1 and A^O^ are un<^er study by NASA (Ref. A2). Of potentially major significance, the risks to the ozone layer of large quantities of any compound of chlorine (Ref. A5) may rule out solid propellants, and in particular the Shuttle booster motor, thus necessitating a different launch vehicle. 3. Microwave Transmission The environmental factor that has excited the most concern in environmental assessments of the energy satellite systems is that of the potential effects of the microwave beam transmitted from the satellite. For the PRS *2-10% at 40 to 50 miles (65-80 km) has also been estimated (Ref. A3).
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