Relative to the whole earth, this is an absolutely tiny amount.
"The solution to pollution is dilution."
"The solution to pollution is dilution."
Let's examine a reductio ad absurdum of a medium term future where we have 1000x more space vehicles all taking space dumps into the atmosphere. Would that be best practice? Is there a better norm we could establish today?
This isn't a theoretical question. There's growing awareness among researchers that there's a need to research how the gasses and particles produced by rocket launches at scale could have an impact on the atmosphere.
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/features/2023/rocket-polluti...
So, there's about 1/2 a ton of nickel falling into the atmosphere every day anyway, 180 tons a year, already in the ballpark of your thousand ships.
I guess it comes down to a cost / benefit analysis?
A very tiny amount burning up at great speeds over hundreds of thousands of square kilometers is much more diluted than anything feasible on an industrial scale
It's likely cheaper to dispose of it in a controlled environment than it is to properly dilute it across the globe. And it's impossible to check that the "dilution" won't just end up being dumping it all in a single spot in the ocean devastating ecosystems
The CO2 output of a single car has little local impact and spreads throughout the atmosphere causing negligible global damage. The CO2 output of global industry has a significant impact because of the sheer volume being pumped out is enough to start affecting global temperatures. Other gases emitted by vehicles and industry can be bigger problems even on a small scale because they can concentrate in the local area.
The amount of pollutants in reentering batteries is not large enough to have an impact when diluted throughout the atmosphere. We’d need a lot more satellites for it to start becoming a major cause for concern.