On the Path to Comprehensive Sustainability Assessment of Space Activities over the Whole Life Cycle

Kurzfassung

In recent years the number of launched space objects as increased by orders of magnitude and with projected launches, e.g. due to mega-constellations, this is expected to be a continuing trend. Consequently, sustainability impacts can no longer be assumed as negligible, but have to be quantified. Sustainability and sustainable development are resting on three dimensions: environment, social and economic, which are have to be included in a comprehensive assessment method that the German Aerospace Center (DLR) has started researching in the beginning of 2024 within the Space Sustainability and Sustainable Development (S3D) initiative. Within S3D a comprehensive method for evaluating sustainability impacts by space activities throughout all their mission phases (i.e. 0 to F) is being developed. On space-mission scale, a Life-Cycle-Sustainability-Assessment approach is intended, evaluating e.g. indicators and data sources. Applying LCSA hot spots of space mission impacts on sustainability including e.g. space and launch segments are to be identified. The life cycle perspective allows identifying and thus reducing impacts over all space mission phases, e.g. from early design studies in a Concurrent Engineering environment over integration and testing in late phases to operation and disposal. S3D has a special focus on the climate impact due to launch vehicle use and re-entry. This requires adapting existing chemistry-climate models, establishing and analysing exhaust inventories. This presentation provides an overview about the methodologies applied in S3D, highlights current results and pictures the way forward to a more comprehensive analysis of sustainability impacts of space activities. The framework establishes a basis for incorporating further reference cases from the community and for advancing joint sustainability evaluations across diverse space systems.