MATHIEU UDRIOT; KARIN TREYER; ORELL BÜHLER; LASZLO ETESI; EMMANUELLE DAVID; VALÈRE GIRARDIN
DOI Number: 10.13009/EUCASS2023-015
As opposed to performance, cost, safety, and programmatic metrics, impacts on Earth or on the space environment have not been drivers of space systems and mission designs until recently. This is changing thanks to a shift of mindset, growing risk related to space debris, and a need to anticipate regulations that are likely to be applied to the space industry. The new Assessment and Comparison Tool (ACT) software is made to create configurations of space transportation vehicles (STY) and rapidly perform their life cycle assessment (LCA) based on user-known data and assumptions. Users can input high-level system values and select the relevant LCA datasets used to compute the environmental impacts of that system. This tool will be used in early design phases or other decision-making processes as support to identify key technology, life cycle steps, or components of future STV designs in order to adapt them to mitigate related environmental impacts while being aware of potential trade-offs and hotspot shifting. For now, ACT focuses on the launch segment, setting the system boundaries based on the dedicated ESA space LCA handbook [19]. ACT is being developed in the frame of a project with the ESA Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP) since 2022 by a consortium of Swiss entities: EPFL Space Center (eSpace), Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), and Ateleris GmbH. The project follows previous research conducted at eSpace that focused on space logistics modelling and space sustainability. Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) scores are derived from the Environmental Footprint v3.1 method. On top of such common LCA indicators, a space debris index score is used to assess impacts on the space environment, and preliminary estimations of the atmospheric emissions during the launch are computed as mass flows. Indeed, science gaps for the LCA of an STY have been identified, including the impacts of high-altitude emissions during the launch and the particles and gases generated during the re-entry. In this world of dynamic and fast-changing energy systems, industrial processes, and logistics, ACT enables its users to be proactive and adapts the background database to future scenarios. Therefore ACT helps to ensure that future STV s do minimise the environmental impacts like global warming or resources limitations, that are expected to be major drivers in the coming decades. The tool is designed for evolution. It embeds a modular data structure which allows scope extensions and implementations of newer calculation methodologies as the scientific research progresses. Besides the science gaps, technology gaps can be highlighted from the computed impacts and the intention to mitigate part of them using ecodesign processes. This paper presents the Assessment and Comparison Tool and details the ongoing and needed research to fill knowledge gaps in LCA for space systems. Test cases of imaginary future space transportation vehicles are assessed using ACT to introduce its functionalities and capabilities. Ideas for reusability, vehicles for new launch architectures, and new propellants or materials are discussed regarding environmental impacts before looking at the possible future development of the tool. Copyright© 2023 by Mathieu Udriot. Posted on line by the EU CASS association with permission.