Information Session: Space Sustainability Continuing Education Course – Second Edition 2025

In recent years, the exponential growth of spatial activities, driven in part by the expanding commercial use of space, has yielded promising business opportunities.However, this expansion has also left behind a significant challenge – an ever-increasing population of space debris, with over 28,000 objects currently observable in Earth's orbit. How can we secure the long-term usability of space and design space businesses and missions with a focus on sustainability?

Space Sustainability is a new EPFL short program designed to:

Understand what space sustainability means (from historical, geopolitical,economic, societal, and environmental perspectives) and how to measure it

Explore tools and methodologies for developing more sustainable space missions (ESA's MASTER and DRAMA suite, Space Sustainability Rating, Life Cycle Assessment & Environmental Impact Assessment, etc.)

Interact with the most recent research developments and explore the potential advantages of incorporating Environmental Social Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies within the space sector

This course is organized by EPFL Space Center (eSpace), EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne) in collaboration with International Space University (ISU), IMS Space Consultancy and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The program is designed for individuals engaged in space-related roles (engineers, scientists, non-technical managers, policy practitioners, etc.) and who share a common focus on ensuring the long-term sustainability and safety of the space environment.

This course will take place March 24-27, 2025