rebecca maeB
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NASA's shuttle system won't be sending everyone to space anytime soon. Though they are not spending money putting individuals into space, NASA will still be innovating. The innovation is going to be aiming into groundwater, not into space. NASA estimates that the environmental cleanup from years of shuttle launches will take almost $1 billion and decades.
'Viscous toxic goo' in Florida dirt
The Kennedy Space Center has been contaminated. There have been 267 websites total contaminated by NASA too. Any chemicals poured or spilled to the ground have caused this contamination to take place. Solvents, cleaners, flame retardants and rocket fuel all combined in the soil, and in some cases created "plumes" that go 90 feet or deeper down to the soil. Drinking water has yet to be impacted by the "goo." Drinking water is safe although it could be impacted without a fix.
The efforts are being made
NASA does not ignore environmental cleanup completely. It does a few things over it. To be able to clean up chemical spills since 1989, the agency has spent around $9 million a year. In 1970, the EPA started. Before that, most of the NASA contamination occurred. In 1980, there was lots of regulation that Congress started for hazardous waste which regulated most of the chemicals the NASA websites left. Birth defects and cancer can come from the chemical called "trike" by most. NASA says that about 30 years would be needed before the contamination would all be fixed while it has already cleaned about 141 of the 267 online websites.
Breakthroughs continue
NASA has long been a center of scientific development and improvement. NASA will continue that with its $1 billion spending budget and 30 year time frame. NASA is working on methods of cleaning up. They'll be less costly and more effective when all is said and done. Cleaning up hazardous materials is always difficult for everybody. This is why NASA and the University of Central Florida are working together to discover non-hazardous byproducts to use. "Heavy" solvents such as corn oil are getting used to bind trike in the dirt. A brand new substance is mixed this way.
Citations
USA Today:,
International Business Times,
PopSci:
'Viscous toxic goo' in Florida dirt
The Kennedy Space Center has been contaminated. There have been 267 websites total contaminated by NASA too. Any chemicals poured or spilled to the ground have caused this contamination to take place. Solvents, cleaners, flame retardants and rocket fuel all combined in the soil, and in some cases created "plumes" that go 90 feet or deeper down to the soil. Drinking water has yet to be impacted by the "goo." Drinking water is safe although it could be impacted without a fix.
The efforts are being made
NASA does not ignore environmental cleanup completely. It does a few things over it. To be able to clean up chemical spills since 1989, the agency has spent around $9 million a year. In 1970, the EPA started. Before that, most of the NASA contamination occurred. In 1980, there was lots of regulation that Congress started for hazardous waste which regulated most of the chemicals the NASA websites left. Birth defects and cancer can come from the chemical called "trike" by most. NASA says that about 30 years would be needed before the contamination would all be fixed while it has already cleaned about 141 of the 267 online websites.
Breakthroughs continue
NASA has long been a center of scientific development and improvement. NASA will continue that with its $1 billion spending budget and 30 year time frame. NASA is working on methods of cleaning up. They'll be less costly and more effective when all is said and done. Cleaning up hazardous materials is always difficult for everybody. This is why NASA and the University of Central Florida are working together to discover non-hazardous byproducts to use. "Heavy" solvents such as corn oil are getting used to bind trike in the dirt. A brand new substance is mixed this way.
Citations
USA Today:,
International Business Times,
PopSci:
