Environmental impacts of launchers and space missions

Clean Space industrial Days, October 25th 2017

Speaker: Augustin Chanoine, Deloitte Sustainability

Environmental impacts of launchers and space missions

Environmental impacts of launchers

© 2017 Deloitte Conseil 2Environmental impacts of launchers and space missions - Clean Space Industrial Days, 2017

Outline

1. Context & objectives 2. Overview of calculation methodology3. Results4. Key methodological points5. Conclusions & recommendations


Why study the environmental impacts of launchers?

Context

• Growing public awareness on the impacts of human activities on our ecosystem

• More and more stringent public environmental legislation & increasing public pressure

• ESA, as a public sector intergovernmental organisation, has put the environmental concern as a priority in all its activities

• The first step in this direction was a deeper analysis and understanding of the environmental aspects of space programmes. ESA wanted to get the know-how:

• to be more active in facing legislation on this topic, and

• to drive technical and scientific innovation in European space industry.

• Among all European space related activities, a particular attention needed to be paid on the environmental impacts of launchers since the launcher vehicles’ production and operation are core activities of the European space industry.

• First impression: launch event is the main contributor to the environmental impacts of a launcher… What does science say?


Study objectives

• Main objectives:

1. To test the applicability and relevance of Life Cycle Assessment for the environmental analysis of space launchers

2. To better understand the environmental impacts of launchers (Ariane 5, Vega and Soyuz ST) and the sources of these impacts

3. To identify possible actions of environmental impacts mitigation

4. To set recommendations for further analysis and next steps of the environmental impact assessment of launchers


Life Cycle Assessment is a comprehensive, objective and science-based methodology to assess the environmental footprint of a system over its life-cycle

Overview of calculation methodology

• LCA is a standardised approach (by ISO) which is:

• multi-step, assessing potential impacts of a product all along its whole life cycle

• multi-criteria, taking into account all environmental issues

• General principle: avoid burden shifting

• For the case of launchers: LCA needs to be complemented for the assessment of the atmospheric emissions during launch event


Launcher integration

Launch base preparation

Fuelling

People transportation

Component & stage

transport

Component assembly Propellant and

consumables production

Stage production

Propellant burning

Stage disposal

Accompanying activities

Launch campaign

Production & assembly

Launch event

Qualification flights

R&D & Infrastructures

People transportation

Testing

Office work & travelling

Infrastructures

Mineral resource depletion

Energy consumption

Global warming

Ozone depletion

Air pollution

Water pollution

Disposal

R&D & infrastructures

Production & assembly

Launch campaign

Launch event

Life cycle breakdown

Overview of calculation methodology


Satellite integration and final launcher

integration (BAF for A5)

Launch base preparation (incl. ground stations)

Fuelling

Launch Campaign

People travelling

Transport of the stages

Transport of the components

Production of the components

Production & Assembly

Stage assembly

Production of the propellants

Transport of the propellants

Propellant burning Stage disposal

Launch Event

R&D

Office work and travelling

Testing

Qualification flights

Infrastructures

Infrastructures

Satellite integration (EPCU)

Launcher integration (BIL for A5)


Stage production

Propellants & consumables production Transport


With some exceptionsMain contributors are stage production, propellants & consumables production and launch campaign…

LCA results of Ariane 5 ECA


Launcher integration > Electricity consumption

Propellant burning > HCl emissions

EAP > MPS > CPN > stainless steel production >

Molybdenum production

EAP > MPS > CPP > Electricity and heat

consumption

EPC disposal > Nickel, ion emissions

UPG activities > Electricity

consumption

EAP > MPS > CPN > stainless steel production

> Molybdenum consumption

EAP > MPS > CPP > Natural gas consumption

during production

Ammonium perchlorate production > sodium chlorate production >

Cr VI emissions in water

Ammonium perchlorate production > Platinum

consumption

LH2 production > Methanol production >

natural gas consumption

Ammonium perchlorate production > sodium chlorate production > French electricity

consumption

Boat transport > SO2 and NOx

emissions

EAP > MPS > CPN > direct water consumptionEPC > Propulsion >

Vulcain 2 > French electricity for acceptance test

EPC > Propulsion > Vulcain 2 > French

electricity for acceptance test and

assembly

Ammonium perchlorate production > sodium chlorate production > water consumption

EAP > MPS > CPN > German

electricity mix

UPG activities > Electricity consumption >

NOx

Boat transport > NOx

emissions

Carbon footprint: first 10 contributors < 50% of total carbon footprint (CF) of Ariane 5: CF distributed homogeneously among numerous contributors => many improvement areas



Material production

Energy consumption

Transport

8,7%

6,5%6,2%

5,7%

5,1%

4,1%

3,5%

2,9%

2,4% 2,3%

0,0%

1,0%

2,0%

3,0%

4,0%

5,0%

6,0%

7,0%

8,0%

9,0%

10,0%

Electricity production <

Solid propellant

at UPG

Electricity consumption <

Launcher

integration (Arianespace)

GHG emissions < Boat transport


Launch base

preparation (CNES)

Aluminium production <

aluminium

powder production

Electricity consumption < LH2 production

Electricity consumption at MT < MPS -CPN

< EAP

Electricity consumption

for LN2

production < Consumables

production

Methanol production <

LH2 production

Electricity and heat

consumption at

Avio, Colleferro < MPS -CPP <

EAP

First contributors to total Ariane 5 impacts for Global Warming PotentialFU: 1 launch of Ariane 5 ECA

Energy consumption: same contributors and ranking as for the carbon footprint, except activities in metropolitan France and French Guiana



Material production

Energy consumption

Transport6,3%6,1%

5,3%

4,7%

4,2%4,0% 3,9%

3,7%

3,0%2,8%

0,0%

1,0%

2,0%

3,0%

4,0%

5,0%

6,0%

7,0%

Electricity production <

Solid propellant

at UPG

Sodium chlorate production < ammonium

perchlorate production

Methanol production <

LH2 production


Launcher

integration (Arianespace)


Launch base

preparation (CNES)

Aluminium production <

aluminium

powder production

Electricity consumption at

Astrium, Les

Mureaux < EPC assembly < EPC

Boat transport Electricity consumption < LH2 production

Electricity consumption at

SNECMA,

Vernon < propulsion -

Vulcain 2 acceptance

tests < EPC

First contributors to total Ariane 5 impacts for Primary Energy ConsumptionFU: 1 launch of Ariane 5 ECA

47% renewable primary energy(Guianese mix)

4% renewable primary energy(French mix)

This is a typical example of why a

multi-criteria analysis is important

Focus on stage production



0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Mass breakdown

Global Warming Potential

Photochemical Oxidant Formation Potential

Ozone Depletion Potential

Air Acidification Potential

Marine Ecotoxicity Potential

Human Toxicity Potential

Freshwater Aquatic Ecotoxicity Potential

Metal Depletion Potential

Abiotic Depletion Potential

Primary Energy Consumption Potential

Gross Water Consumption Potential

Freshwater Eutrophication Potential

Marine Eutrophication Potential

Ionising Radiation Potential

Environmental impacts of Ariane 5 ECA - Stage productionFU: 1 launch of Ariane 5 ECA

EAP production EPC production ESC-A production VEB production Upper section production

EAP and EPC production: most impacting sub-steps for all environmental impacts: 85-90% of the total impacts of stage production

For Metal Depletion, the mass breakdown gives a relatively good idea of the contribution of each stage but for the other indicators this “rule of thumb” does not reflect reality: EPC more impacting than EAP while 15% (vs. 75%) dry mass

Focus on propellants & consumables production



0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Mass breakdown (quantities loaded in the launcher)

Mass breakdown (quantities produced)











Gross Water Consumption Potential




Environmental impacts of Ariane 5 ECA - Propellants & Consumables productionFU: 1 launch of Ariane 5 ECA

Solid propellant production LOX production LH2 production Consumables production

• Mass breakdown of quantities of propellants produced per launch: not representative of breakdown of impacts

• Notably because huge amount of N2 produced in CSG (for ground facilities mainly)

• N2 production impacts are low:

produced from air distillation, which requires only a relatively small amount of electricity (15x less than H2

from methanol) Elec. from the

network in Guiana (with a high % of hydro)

What about R&D & infrastructures? Difficult to assess: data accessibility and allocation


R&D and infrastructures could be an important issue, to be further analysed in the future


R&D

ScopeDue to limited data availability, only R&D office work (no testing and qualification activities) and carbon footprint

DataNumber of man.years for the development of A5: provided by ESACarbon footprint of R&D centre used as a proxy for impact of 1 man.year

Results60 A5 launches:

R&D office work = 45% of CF of 1 launch= production & assembly

100 A5 launches:R&D office work = 33% of CF of 1 launch

Infrastructures

Scope

All infrastructures included in the assessment

Data

• Specific infrastructures @CSG

• W/o specific data for Production & Assembly,

infrastructures of car manufacturing used as a lower

limit for dry mass

Results

200 Ariane launches:

Infrastructures = 5% of A5 carbon footprint

= 25% of A5 metal depletion

Key methodological points


First LCA of space launchers: no prior knowledge of the environmental hotspots

1. Iterative approach (4 iterations for A5):• LCA model refined progressively, prioritising on

the main hotspots

2. In-depth review:• Independent review performed by external LCA

expert to ensure LCA compliant w/ ISO standards

• Internal review by ESA experts to check data and assumptions on space-specific activities

3. In-depth analysis of the robustness of the model:• Data quality assessment• Sensitivity analyses on input parameters with

high uncertainty• Uncertainty analysis

Low level of availability of data representative of the space sector• Specific materials, manufacturing &

assembly processes• Specific production chain: little

recurrent production

Intensive data collection process on most space-specific activities:

• More than 40 companies contacted • 15 participated in data collection

Methodology

Data

Industry has a major role to play!

Focus on industry data collection


• More than 40 companies contacted

• 15 participated in data collection

• Data collected on all parts of the launchers

• Several types of data collected:

• Consumptions:

− Raw materials

− Water

− Energy

− Auxiliary materials

• Emissions:

− Waste of raw materials

− Waste of auxiliary materials

− Specific emissions: in air, in water, in ground


Avio, Europropulsion,MT Aerospace, SPS,

Regulus, Alpoco

EAP

EPC

Air Liquide (Kourou et Sassenage),

Astrium (FR), Astrium (GER), Cryospace, MT

Aerospace, Snecma, Volvo

ESC-A

Air Liquide (Kourou et Sassenage), Astrium (GER), Cryospace, MT Aerospace, Snecma

VEB

Fairing

Ruag

Astrium (GER)

Sylda 5

Astrium (FR)

Ariane 5 ECA double launch

Analysis of the robustness of the model


1. Data quality assessment

2. Sensitivity analyses

3. Uncertainty analysis


How?Assessment of representativeness, precision and completeness of each individual input data (scoring of quality from 1 to 3)

What for?Shows the weaknesses of the input dataset (and priorities for improvement)

How?Assesses results sensitivity to the variation of one key parameter/assumption (all other key parameters are kept constant)

What for?Shows the relative importance of the choice of one specific key parameter/assumption

How?Assesses the uncertainty of the outputs by propagating the uncertainty of the input data (all data vary at the same time)Monte-Carlo analysis

What for?Shows the overall robustness of the outputs

Which parameters were tested through sensitivity analysis?



Launcher(s) Sensitivity analysis Main results

A5 / Vega Rejection rate for metallic parts Metal depletion: increase of 15% of rejection rate > 13% (8.5%) of increase of stage production impact for A5 (Vega)

A5 / Vega Emissions during manufacturing processes of metallic parts

Not critical for the LCA of launchers

A5 / Vega Emissions during the production of hydrazine

Not critical for the LCA of launchers

A5 / Vega People travelling during Production & Assembly

~10% of launchers carbon footprint

A5 / Vega Losses during solid propellant precursors production

Key parameter!

Vega Use rate of ground stations Significant influence on Launch Campaign, not the total impacts of the launcher

Soyuz ST Energy efficiency of Russian processes

Results are sensitive to this assumption (it only impacts dry-mass production)

Soyuz ST Electricity mix for aluminium production

No sensitivity, mainly because impacts stem from component manufacturing steps, not aluminium production

Soyuz ST Use of CFC-113 ODP highly sensitive (almost only CFC plays a role)

Uncertainty analysis is key to understand the robustness of the model



0% 50% 100% 150% 200% 250% 300%














Water Depletion Potential

Results of uncertainty analysis on LCA results of Ariane 5

Conclusions & recommendations (1/2)

• Life Cycle Assessment proved to be both applicable and relevant for the study of the environmental performance of launchers

• The study allowed ESA to have an in-depth understanding of the environmental hotspots and impact sources of launchers, and areas where more focus should be put

• Having robust industry data is key. At the same time, industry can get much benefit from inititiating an LCA approach:

• To communicate results and approach to clients

• To gain knowledge on the environmental impacts of products

• To identify mitigation measures (e.g. ISO14001:2015)

• From a methodological standpoint, LCA is the first step towards an ecodesign approach

• LCA increasingly becoming a standard tool in industry, e.g. Product Environmental Footprint initiative of the European Commission

• The life-cycle approach could even be mandatory in the future, so anticipating this a wise choice


Conclusions & recommendations (2/2)

Recommendations for future work:

• Most of the data on manufacturing processes, materials and propellants not specific to space

Need to develop a space-specific LCA database

• In this LCA:

− More robust calculation needed for ozone depletion (Al2O3 and chlorine)

− Effect of H2O, O3 and Al2O3 on global warming was excluded from the scope: only the GWP of carbon compounds (CO2 and CO), which has a lower level of uncertainty, is included.

In-depth study needed on impact of atmospheric emissions

• W/o precise knowledge of the toxic impact of falling launcher stages, a crude model was used

In-depth study also needed on this particular aspect


Thank you for your attention!

Any questions?

Contact:

Augustin [email protected]+33 1 55 61 68 85


mailto:[email protected]

Environmental impacts of space missions


Outline

1. Context2. Objectives3. Scope4. Results5. Key methodological points6. Conclusions


Launchers are only a part of space programmes

Context

• ESA wanted to extend the use of LCA to whole space projects:

• To foster technical and scientific innovation by integrating environment as a decision criterion in the design of space missions

• (possibly) to allow the comparison with other sectors


From launchers… … To space missions

To provide ESA with the necessary tools to design future space missions in a more environmentally friendly way

Objective of the project:

• In this presentation, we will focus on step 2. You are welcome to the presentation of the eco-design tool (step 3) this afternoon


• To assess the environmental impacts of space projects

2 case studies selected:

• To develop and test the LCA methodology for space projects to be implemented in the tool

Earth observation Communication

1. Scoping

2. Pilot Life-Cycle Assessments

3. Development of eco-design tool

• To better understand the technical specificities of space projects• To analyse the state-of-the-art in terms of environmental analysis of such

systems

Phases Objectives

• To develop an enhanced software tool and database adapted to space projects, to be integrated in the Open Concurrent Design Tool (OCDT) at ESA’s Concurrent Design Facility (CDF), ESTEC

The entire life-cycle of space missions was covered

Scope of the assessment


A + BFeasibility +

Preliminary definition


C + DDetailed definition

+ Qualification and production AIT


Production

FDisposal Re-entry

E2Utilisation

phaseRoutine phase

Payload + TT&C

E1Launch and

commissioning Launch campaign Launch

Ground Stations,Control centres

Design facilities

Infrastructures

Production and testing facilities

CSG

Control centres (Flight and

payload data)

Ground stations (Flight and payload

data)

Where do the impacts come from? > Breakdown per life cycle step

Results of the LCA of space missions


Energy consumption for the operation of the buildings (CC,

GS)

Energy consumption for the operation of

the buildings(Design facilities)

All impacts related to launcher (production,

launch campaign, launch event)

EO mission

What is the impact ratio between the S/C and the launcher?


• Mass ratios:

• EO: The dry mass of the S/C is about 1% of launcher’s liftoff mass (1.4 t vs. 137 t)

• Com: the dry mass of the S/C is about 0.3% of launcher’s liftoff mass (2.2 t vs. 780 t)


EO mission

EO mission Com mission

Com mission

EO: phase C+D accounts for 20 to 40% (even 100% for mineral depletion potential) while dry mass of the spacecraft ~ 1% of Vega liftoff mass



0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

Sentinel 3 dry mass Vega liftoff mass

t

Vega liftoffmass

EM, QM,STM

FM

Spacecraft dry mass

137t

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

1,2

1,4

1,6

Sentinel 3 dry mass

t

EM, QM, STM

FM

Spacecraft dry mass

This is due to:• Different composition• Several S/C built for testing purposes• More office work & travelling

Focus on phase C+D: while office work is the main contributor to phase C+D, spacecraft components also contribute significantly to some impact categories



Environmental impacts of Earth observation missionFocus on phase C+D

Use of germanium in Solar cells

Energy consumption (both electricity and

natural gas) consumed in the buildings

Production of electronic components

What are the key findings?


• Launcher-related activities (phase E1b): main contributor to most environmental impacts of space missions.

• Other life-cycle steps also have significant contributions to the environmental impacts:

• Definition, qualification and production of the spacecraft (phase C+D)(raw material extraction, production, testing and transport of S/C models, office work and business travels):

• main contributor on mineral resource depletion, due to the use of scarce materials.

• Office work: also important contributor within this phase, due to the energy consumption of design buildings (office work)

• The utilisation phase (phase E2), which covers ground segment activities performed during the routine phase, is also a major contributor on certain indicators, due to the electricity consumption of:

• either control centres (case of the EO mission), or

• ground stations for broadcast (case of the communication mission).

• Feasibility + Preliminary definition (phase A+B) is also an significant contributor to the impacts of space missions.


Main challenges and how we addressed them



First LCAs covering the entire life-cycle of space missions: no prior knowledge of the environmental hotspots

Iterative approach (4 iterations):The LCA model was refined progressively, prioritising on the main hotspots

Low level of availability of data representative of the space sector• Specific materials, manufacturing &

assembly processes• Specific production chain: little recurrent

production, almost “handmade”!

Collaboration with numerous experts (ESA and external):e.g. definition of a “technical mapping”: identification of the existing technological alternatives for each life-cycle step and subsystem of the spacecraft

Methodology

Data

Industry has a major role to play!

How to populate an LCA database representative of a wide variety of space missions?As many activities as possible had to be covered

In parallel, ESA launched of a project dedicated to the development of an enhanced environmental database on space-specific activities (materials, processes and propellants)

Model philosophy for the EO mission



SLSTR

MWR

SRAL

OLCI

STM

Platform

Satellite

FMEM EQM PFMP

aylo

adSM

Production of structure & thermal elements

Production of electronics elements

Production of the full equipment

Test of equimpent

Conclusions

• Life Cycle Assessment is a relevant and efficient method for assessing the environmental performance of space activities: space launchers and space missions.

• The quality of environmental footprinting results (and thus the robustness of eco-design choices) will be improved with the development of the environmental database specific to the space sector.

• Data quality can be improved with the implication of industry

• LCA is applicable to the entire life-cycle of a space mission in a cost-effective way!

• LCA can be used for the eco-design of space activities and can help anticipate future clients’ requests, stakeholders’ expectations and future environmental legislation

> Please come to the presentation of the eco-design tool this afternoon!


Thank you for your attention!

Any questions?

Contact:

Augustin [email protected]+33 1 55 61 68 85


mailto:[email protected]

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Environmental impacts of launchers and space missions

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