A Sustainable and Affordable Access to Space
Creators: name:  F. MAROQUENE FROISSART 
name:   A. JOST 
Publisher: name: Proceedings of  the 9th European Conference for Aerospace Sciences. Lille, France, 27 June - 1 July, 2022
Year: 2022
Subjects: SUSTAINABLE SPACE
LOGISTICS

description: NewSpace is turning to be a new era for the Space Market as the actors are initiating new projects and innovations to promote and democratise access to space. It is not only a complete economic transformation but also a technological and human revolution. Among many other values that are new to the space sector, NewSpace is changing the economic philosophy to drive sustainability and affordability : Solutions must be found to preserve the environment and foster the growth of NewSpaces activities. It is essential to remind that sustainability should not leave aside development considerations and has to be the core of the product life-cycle management definition. If those environmental considerations are to be applied for developing a mini-launch vehicle for the NewSpaces industry, there is a need to rethink entirely the life cycle of a mini-launch vehicle to guarantee a sustainable project development. It is necessary to consider environmental impact and carbon footprint for all development activities : Conception, raw material extraction and processing, test campaigns, qualification, transportation for launcher parts. As for the operational phase, mini-launchers can be more ecological as it is possible to promote the use of bio and green propellants and aim for a no-debris policy : The development of 100% reusable launchers should be supported to foster more responsible space projects and limit the amount of debris on ground and in-orbit. At the products end of life, it should be defined that the launchers parts must be recycled for sustainable purposes. As much as sustainability has become highly important in the NewSpace industry, the first need on the space market for a mini-launcher is to be affordable for clients and partners. To propose low-cost access to space, it is recommended to develop a mini-launcher as demonstrated in a document published by the Air and Space Academy (1) : The architecture of the launcher must be simple, with many reproducible and adaptable systems as possible, for example, the same engine can be used for all the stages to reduce the development cost and it is highly recommended to aim for a two stages launcher. To guarantee an affordable price, the use of COTS and non-space systems that can be qualified during the development phase is also highly recommended as it can drive cooperation with non-space industries and lower the development cost. To minimise the launch price for a mini-launcher, it is also recommended to aim for a fully reusable system, to lower costs and support sobriety and sustainability in the production phase. With NewSpaces evolution, competitiveness has been increasing between the actors on the space market, and it is crucial to identify the main requirements for the development of mini-launchers. At Sirius Space Services, the project development is inherent to the space market evolution and requirements : The company is focusing on conciliating the needs of the clients and low-cost rides with ecology and is proposing to submit an abstract on sustainability meeting with affordability. The presentation will be about proposing new methods of development at early stages for conception, production, tests and operations to guarantee the sustainability of all activities in the space sector. (1) J. Ackermann, C. Bonnal, G. Breard et al., 2021, SMALL LAUNCHERS : A European perspective