Debatable Test Flight Cancelled, Was Aimed At Cooling The Planet

US and European authorities canceled a balloon Test Flight that was to take place in Sweden’s far north in June. The expedition was the role model for the disputed solar geoengineering experiment to artificially condense the planet.

A team of experts at Harvard University had been facing a long-standing ride to launch the high altitude balloon from the Esrange Space Station. The plan got demolished as it raised concerns among the scientists and environmentalists who say that the technology is dangerous and risky. The fear aroused more ramifications than advantages, and hence got called off after facing retaliation from the experts in the Senate.

“The scientific community is divided regarding geoengineering,” the state-owned Swedish Space Corporation, which operates Esrange, said in a statement issued Wednesday. Following lengthy dialogues with the Harvard University and stakeholders, it was viable not to proceed ahead with the flight planned for this summer.

A special committee was set up by Harvard to study the societal and ethical aspects of the project. The committee claimed that it is advisable to postpone the Test Flight. The review of the implication became precarious for Sweden’s indigenous Sami people and Sweden as a whole. The high altitude balloon was going to launch with an objective to test whether it could carry equipment to release solar radiation reflecting particles into the Earth’s atmosphere.

The project got dubbed as SCoPEx, and the committee advised this name to be the best suit. Furthermore, on the committee’s recommendation, societal engagement would be conducted in Sweden without any further delay.  The project will now get postponed until 2022. The project’s launch is not bigger than the integrity of the country and should not be a negotiable instrument for gaining rewards. The implications might have affected Sweden’s indigenous Sami people and such a risk could not be affirmed.