Life Cycle Assesment of Different Reusable Launch Vehicle Types

Kurzfassung

Various Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLV), such as SpaceX’s Starship, are currently being developed to achieve a cost-effective space access. These may also translate into higher recycling rates which can lead to significant environmental sustainability gains when it comes to the depletion of critical materials. Nevertheless, the sustainability of different recovery and propulsive technologies regarding the full range of environmental impacts is still not well understood. Potential hotspots regarding the atmospheric impacts have been recently identified which can considerably affect the environmental performance of different technologies. The understanding of all these, and their relation to different design choices, is therefore critical to ensure their sustainable conception. To assist this, Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) are becoming an essential tool within the space transportation sector. These can support policy makers and designers in understanding the ecological footprint of a space product by quantifying environmental impacts and identifying hotspots throughout all phases in the launch mission. Such assessmentn can then enable efficient design choices while mitigating impacts, preventing burden shifting and achieving a cost-effective systems. In this study, several RLV types studied within DLR (technical details presented in separate paper) were assessed to obtain their life-cycle footprints. These launcher, consisting of different recovery and propulsive technologies, were designed to sustain a similar launch fleets, making comparisons possible. These include vertical and horizontal landing with propulsive or glide capabilities and employing different propellants as hydrogen and methane. It was followed by a sensitivity assessment of identified LCA parameters such as characterization factors and launcher reusability rates to understand the major sources of uncertainties. The comprehensive LCA will enable the quantification of the relative sustainability in different environmental impact categories, identify potential environmental hotspots in their design, and understand criticalities in current LCA assessments. These will support upcoming work to improve LCA’s by including launch event and disposal related impacts and uncertainty quantification in the assessment, eventually enabling the robust eco-design of launch vehicles.