Speaker
Description
With a continuously growing number of satellites in orbit, it becomes increasingly important to assess their impacts on the Earth's environment in a standardised manner. While interest in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for space missions has gained in strength in the past few years - particularly in Europe - no consensus has yet been reached on a single-score LCA system. In parallel however, scoring systems for other sustainability aspects have been defined and are increasingly being used in the industry.
A notable example is that of the Swiss-based Space Sustainability Rating (SSR) non-profit organization. It aims to incentivise sustainable behaviors in space through a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the sustainability level of a mission. Several criteria are considered for this such as collision avoidance, post-mission disposal strategy, compliance to existing space debris mitigation standards, detectability and trackability, data sharing, and readiness level to active removal.
This presentation shows the results of a consensus-based feasibility study for creating a LCA single-score to be used for both the LCA module of the SSR, as well as for general space mission ecodesign. The focus of the study lies in the identification of the initial inputs and the methodology to assess them, as well as the weighting method to reach a single-score. A global survey, with a European focus, has been conducted for this study and its conclusions are used to provide an initial discussion on the weighting method to be used.
Overall, this paper highlights the importance of an easy-to-understand LCA tool for space systems. It shows the necessity for a tool that is implementable during the design phase of the mission, to incentivise space actors to opt for more sustainable materials and designs, and to reassess their logistics. To that effect, this presentation explores consensus-based weights for a single score, highlights perceived benefits and drawbacks of doing a space LCA, investigates new weights for SSR, shows an initial application on the Delfi-n3Xt cubesat mission and underlines the main aspects which still need further development and investigation.
