Act for more sustainable space

The European Space Agency plays a vital role in ensuring that space activities remain safe and sustainable in the long term, maximising benefits to society while reducing the space sector’s environmental impacts on Earth as well as in Earth’s orbit, on the Moon and in deep space.

Companies that develop products for use on Earth have clear environmental protection laws, guidelines and tools to assess the impact of design choices. The most-used methodology is the ‘life-cycle assessment’ which looks at a product's whole life and quantifies its environmental impact, from mining and processing source materials to how it decomposes or is incinerated, a timeline also referred to as “from cradle to grave”.

But what if the product is part of a space system? How do you account for impacts such as emissions released high in the atmosphere, the production of specialised space materials, or systems that end their lives in orbit or burn up during reentry?

Assessing a global footprint when it goes Universal

Small- and medium-sized enterprises that are pitching or designing a new product or service for space already have a lot to consider. To help these companies, ESA came up with the idea of a tool to assess the life cycle for future launchers and spacecraft instead of analysing it once the vehicle is already in operation and changes are more difficult to incorporate in the design and will have less impact.

“We wanted a tool to make life-cycle assessments simpler for complete space transportation scenarios – from launch, transportation in space and even return from space – so environmental hot-spots can be seen early in the design phase,” says ESA's  Valère Girardin, “currently only cost and performance are accounted for, with the Assessment and Comparison Tool, environmental impact is taken into account from the start.”

The result was the Assessment and Comparison Tool (ACT), developed by a consortium led by the EPFL Space Center. The software can generate life cycle assessments for space hardware, spacecraft, launchers, ground stations and even complete missions. It can be used from the earliest design stages as well as later in a project’s lifetime.ACT combines data from life cycle assessments and incorporates guidelines such as the EU’s Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), and provides expert advice on the development of ESA’s latest space system’s life-cycle assessment guidelines.

The EPFL Space Center, together with ESA, was wary of “reinventing what already exists” and included established organisations in their consortium. ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse, France, provided their knowledge on launch profiles, whilst the Institute of Space Systems in Stuttgart, Germany, delivered its expertise of launch and reentry emissions per altitude layer. The Paul Scherrer Institute PSI’s know-how on life-cycle assessments strengthened ACT’s scientific basis, Ways Ehead’s market research and advice on legislation brought the tool up to the latest and upcoming standards, and Ateleris converted the expertise and knowledge into the development of ACT's software.

Reaching out

ACT is being marketed and further improved by a spin-off company EcoDeltaV, keeping intellectual property and security in mind, as well us keeping it up to date with new research and findings as they are found. The company is offering the tool as a software-as-a-service and using it internally for consultancy services.

"Space is a fast-paced industry whose impact can no longer be neglected, and we are committed to ensuring sustainability in space transportation," says EcoDeltaV advisor and co-founder Emmanuelle David, "Our tools and services offer companies an easy, quick way to assess space system designs and see how they can reduce their environmental impact with lifecycle insights from the moment ideas are formulated.

“The upgraded tool provides fast turnaround on ideas and helps secure funding or market share, while ensuring compliance with standards and regulations for the sustainable space transportation of the future."