Space Sustainability Course: How to design more sustainable missions?

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We are used to considering space as an infinite resource. We could not be more wrong. Decades of space exploration have led to tremendous technological progress, bringing crucial services, such as weather forecasting, climate monitoring, global positioning and communications, contributing to economic and social development globally. However, the rising number of satellites launches to already crowded orbits has amplified concerns about preserving the sustainability and safety of the space environment in the long-term. This situation could precipitate as a cascade of collisions would result in orbits being unusable for many generations, thus losing all the vital infrastructure providing services central to sustainable development and economic growth on earth. The goal of the course is to give the students a sense of what space sustainability means and how they can design, operate missions and how to manage space business with a sustainability perspective.

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Objectives of the course

The experts will tackle the history of space sustainability and geopolitical challenges. Different tools and methods will be presented and then used in group works. On the last day, the concept of Environmental Social Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) will be presented. Throughout the 3-days the concepts covered are accompanied by  group work, in which the students will develop  a concept for a space mission, evaluating  the technical, economical, governance and geopolitical aspects of sustainability in space.

After completing the course, the participants will have a better understanding of the challenges of space sustainability, a concrete set of tools and methods on how to better measure, analyse and act towards more sustainable space missions. The three day course also allows having in-depth exchanges with experts.

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Target Audience

The target audience is composed of professionals with a few years of working experience with an interdisciplinary background, should it be engineers, managers or policy practitioners. The group work will also allow a learning-by the peers dimension to the students and identify the challenges from other disciplines.

Organisation

  • EPFL Space Center
  • The Karman Project
  • ESA
  • MIT

Teaching approach

  • In-class teaching
  • Meeting with practitioners
  • Group Work

24 to 27 March, 2025

Campus UNIL-EPFL, Lausanne (Switzerland)

CHF 2'400
10% discount for contributing members of EPFL Alumni & EPFL Partners

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Our Teachers

KPMG Luxembourg

Sabrina Alam
IMS Space Consultancy

Vitali Braun
Executive Director

Emmanuelle David
Academic Director

Prof. Jean-Paul Kneib
ISU

Nicolas Peter
MIT

Minoo Rathnaspabathy
Engineer
Student Coordinator

Mathieu Udriot
Senior Policy Advisor

Xiao-Shan Yap, PhD

KPMG Luxembourg

Sabrina Alam

IMS Space Consultancy

Vitali Braun

Executive Director

Emmanuelle David

Emmanuelle has 10 years’ experience in space transportation in academia, agency and industry from pre-development projects up to launch operations. She holds Space Engineering degrees both from the University of Technology of Compiegne, France, and the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany. She has completed in 2021 a certificate of advanced studies at the Swiss Institute of Technology in ZĂŒrich in Technology and Public Policy : Policy Process. She is International Astronautical Federation Space transportation committee and member of the board of the EUCASS- european conference for aerospace science.

She is engaged in increasing diversity and inclusion in scientific and engineering fields being a mentor program for the Swisstecladies and is also a member of the management group from the Swisstecladies Network from the swiss academy of Science (SATW). She is a member of Women in Aerospace and support the Space Generation Advisory Council “Our Giant leap” initiative.

Academic Director

Prof. Jean-Paul Kneib

Jean-Paul Kneib is a Full Professor of Astrophysics at EPFL, Director of the EPFL Laboratory of Astrophysics (LASTRO), Academic Director of the EPFL Space Center, and the Swiss Scientific Delegate to the SKAO Council.

Prof. Kneib specializes in cosmology, radio astronomy, fiber-positioner robotic systems, and space sustainability, among other areas. He holds a master’s degree in Astrophysics and Space Technology and a PhD in Astrophysics from Toulouse University. He was awarded an ERC Advanced grant for the project LIght on the DArk along with many other scientific and innovation grants. He has served in many telescope time allocation committees and (e.g. XMM-Newton, Hubble and JWST) as well as many grant allocation committees (e.g. ERC, SNF, ANR).

ISU

Nicolas Peter

MIT

Minoo Rathnaspabathy

Engineer
Student Coordinator

Mathieu Udriot

Mathieu Udriot graduated from EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland) in February 2022 with a Master in Microengineering, specialized in space technologies. His master thesis was on the Implementation of a Space Sustainability Rating. He was part of the EPFL team that won the European Rocketry Challenge 2021 in Portugal. Now a young professional at eSpace, Mathieu is involved in projects related to green space logistics, space sustainability, concurrent engineering, and supervises student teams.

Senior Policy Advisor

Xiao-Shan Yap, PhD

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