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Adaptation of the Assessment and Comparison Tool for Environmental Impacts of Suborbital Launchers. The Case of the EPFL Rocket Team Sounding Rocket
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Measurements of emissions (gas and particles) during propulsion tests at the EPFL Rocket Team
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Life cycle inventory – standardized procedure to create new LCA datasets
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Eco-design: process to reduce environmental impacts of suborbital rockets’ parts at EPFL Rocket Team
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Martian exploration with an airship
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EPFL Rocket Team
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EPFL Spacecraft Team
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Xplore
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Space Situational Awareness
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Asclepios
Adaptation of the Assessment and Comparison Tool for Environmental Impacts of Suborbital Launchers. The Case of the EPFL Rocket Team Sounding Rocket
CONTEXT
eSpace is actively researching and developing methods and products in space sustainability. This large topic includes work on space debris risks, life cycle assessment of space systems, mitigations of environmental impacts, and decision-making support tools to include sustainable aspects in the early design phase of space missions and systems. Since 2022, eSpace and its partners have been developing a tool to rapidly and automatically assess the environmental impacts of (future) launch vehicles using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, for the European Space Agency. The software gathers user inputs about the materials, processes, propellants, etc. used in the launcher architecture and some information about the manufacturing, logistics, mission profile, and the disposal or recovery and reuse of the parts. ACT outputs a set of impact indicators, so a user can understand its system’s footprint and compare several configurations to help trade-off and decision-making, and select equipment and parts that require ecodesign.
Inputs and outputs of the Assessment and Comparison Tool (ACT)
With the number of launches set to increase in the coming years (also suborbital ones), it’s important for launch service providers, student rocketry teams, and stakeholders in the space industry, to understand their impacts and implement mitigations where they are most efficient at reducing them.
Esa Cleanspace
PROJECT SCOPE
For now the tool is focused on assessing orbital-capable vehicles. The point of the project is to understand the objectives of the tool, define the scope, system boundaries, and make suggestions so it can better assess suborbital launchers. Then implement some of those changes in accordance with eSpace needs by programming them. The student will be collaborating with the EPFL Rocket Team, discuss with their engineers and management team at different levels to gather information. The students’ team, in particular the competition project will serve as a test case for the project. Finally, the student will be encouraged to exploit synergies with other credited projects happening in parallel in a “sustainability task force” set up in collaboration between eSpace and the EPFL Rocket Team.OUTCOME
- A report with tasks of the first phase (see Tasks):
- State-of-the-art of environmental impacts of suborbital rockets
- LCA goal, scope, system boundaries definition for the ERT case
- A branch on Github with model improvements, adaptation to the software, or new features
- An updated sequence diagram
TASKS
Phase 1:- Literature review of life cycle assessment applied to space systems and in particular suborbital launch vehicles
- Understanding the current version of the Assessment and Comparison Tool (ACT), both online and in the code
- Following development at the EPFL Rocket Team to define the LCA goal, scope, and system boundaries, and to highlight code adaptations needed
- (optional) First test case with existing features
- Implementing changes (defined with the project supervisor after the first phase) to ACT on a new Github branch.
- (master thesis) New test case with improved models and new features
- (master thesis) Investigate ecodesign options for the EPFL Rocket Team.
CONTACT
Mathieu Udriot Systems Engineer on Green Space Logistics eSpace – EPFL Space Center mathieu.udriot@epfl.ch Joachim Despature EPFL Rocket Team President eSpace – EPFL Space Center joachim.despature@epfl.chSTATUS OF THE PROJECT
Measurements of emissions (gas and particles) during propulsion tests at the EPFL Rocket Team
Supervisor: eSpace (Mathieu Udriot/Prof. Jean-Paul Kneib)
Type of Project: Semester project, 1 student
Duration: 14 weeks (Official start/end date: Sep. 19th – Dec. 22nd 2023)
Submission of final report: TBD in January 2024
Final Presentation: TBD
Recommended: This project is suitable for a student interested in the space industry, propulsion systems, sensors, and test benches (set-up), data acquisition, and atmospheric impacts. Prior knowledge in data acquisition or measurement is a plus.
CONTEXT
eSpace is actively researching and developing methods and products in space sustainability. This large topic includes work on space debris risks, life cycle assessment of space systems, mitigations of environmental impacts, and decision-making support tools to include sustainable aspects in the early design phase of space missions and systems.
The assessment of the environmental impacts of rocket engine exhausts in the atmosphere is not yet backed by solid scientific knowledge. There is indeed no accepted method to translate the emission of a given amount of exhaust species (like CO2, CO, H2O, HCl, black carbon, or else) at high altitude into an impact (like CO2 equivalent). What can be done already is measure the emissions of propulsion systems, to understand which particles and gases are generated and exhausted by the engine and in what quantity.
Jamie D. Shutler et alli, “Atmospheric impacts of the space industry require oversight”, (August 2022), in: Nature Geoscience, volume 15, p. 598–600, www.nature.com/naturegeoscience.
The EPFL Rocket Team is developing and testing new propulsion systems, with engines using different types of propellant, and based on new design, in preparation for its future rockets. The medium-term goal of the ERT is to fly to 100 km altitude.
It is important for the EPFL Rocket Team to understand their student-developed engines, not only in terms of performance but also regarding generated emissions. Knowledge about the content of the exhaust could drive future development to select different types of propellant, change mix ratio or other design parameters, to decrease the impacts in a process called eco-design.
After first measurements during ground tests, agencies and large companies are interested to measure emissions directly in the atmosphere, to understand the chemistry that takes place at different altitude level.
PROJECT SCOPE
The main goal of the project is to prepare measurements of the exhaust gases and particles to quantify them for rocket engines used by the EPFL Rocket Team.
The test bench used by the team to perform ignition tests, and static fire tests, will probably require some adaptation to accommodate sensors needed for the measurements.
It is also in the scope to investigate the feasibility to conduct a test campaign during launches (or right after) by the EPFL Rocket Team, using any means possible (ideas include but should not be limited to: on-board sensors, air balloons, second rocket with sensors, satellite imaging, etc.).
Finally, the student will be encouraged to exploit synergies with other credited projects happening in parallel in a “sustainability task force” set up in collaboration between eSpace and the EPFL Rocket Team.
OUTCOME
- A report including:
- The state-of-knowledge regarding launchers’ exhausts
- The state-of-affair regarding sensing method for the species of interest
- A list of selected gas / particle sensors and measurement instruments adapted to the task
- Computer-Aided Drawings of the ERT’s test bench adaptations, needed for exhaust measurements
- Explanation of different in-flight measurement scenarios / systems architecture for emissions measurement, and their feasibility in the situation of the EPFL Rocket Team
- Trade-off between measurement scenarios
- Recommendations for future studies
- A comprehensive test procedure to conduct a measurement campaign
- (optional, if time allows) Results of some measurements made on the ERT propulsion system, in a format easy to use for future students
TASKS
Phase 1:
- Literature review on launchers’ exhausts depending on their propulsion type
- Searching for the best suited sensors to perform measurements of interest
Phase 2 (after ordering some sensors):
- Drawing CAD adaptation for the test bench
- Writing a test procedure to use for measurements campaign
- (optional) Implement changes on the test bench and perform sets of measurement using the sensors
Phase 3:
- Searching for the best suited sensors and measurement scenario(s) to perform in-flight data collection of emissions of interest
- Deeper investigation and systems architecture for a subset of selected potential solutions
CONTACT
Mathieu Udriot
Systems Engineer on Green Space Logistics
eSpace – EPFL Space Center
mathieu.udriot@epfl.ch
Joachim Despature
EPFL Rocket Team President
eSpace – EPFL Space Center
joachim.despature@epfl.ch
STATUS OF THE PROJECT
Life cycle inventory – standardized procedure to create new LCA datasets
Supervisor: eSpace (Mathieu Udriot/Prof. Jean-Paul Kneib)
Type of Project: Semester project, 1 student
Duration: 14 weeks (Official start/end date: Sep. 19th – Dec. 22nd 2023)
Submission of final report: TBD in January 2024
Final Presentation: TBD
Recommended: This project is suitable for a student interested in the space industry, environmental footprint assessment, and who would like to bring a central contribution to the EPFL MAKE teams sustainability strategy. Prior knowledge with life cycle assessment, or the Activity Browser (BrightWay2) software, are a plus.
CONTEXT
eSpace is actively researching and developing methods and products in space sustainability. This large topic includes work on space debris risks, life cycle assessment of space systems, mitigations of environmental impacts, and decision-making support tools to include sustainable aspects in the early design phase of space missions and systems.
Life cycle inventory (LCI) is the second of the four phases defined in the ISO-standard to perform life cycle assessment (LCA). To simplify the inventory steps, several organization have created large databases (eg. ecoinvent) with many datasets containing the environmental impacts of different materials, processes, activities etc. Those datasets are not always sufficient to model a specific system, in particular in the space sector, with exotic materials, and very specific processes that depend each time on the mission. To try to complement the ecoinvent database, the European Space Agency has created an extension with datasets made on data collected in the European space sector.
ESA Blog: How to make environmental friendly space missions?
The EPFL Rocket Team or other space teams intend to better understand the environmental impacts of their systems. For that, several projects are foreseen to collect data about materials, processes, or activities of the teams.
Those information will serve to perform a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of the associations, help identify environmental hotspots which will guide the students to select components that need to be eco-designed. Ultimately the whole process will help reduce the footprint of the team.
Common components of a dataset [A. Ciroth, “LCA database creation: current challenges and the way forward”, 2019]
PROJECT SCOPE
This projects aims to compile the knowledge required to uniformize the data collection process and create new LCA datasets for a team like the EPFL Rocket Team.
The outcomes of the project shall be tested and adapted to their usage by other student in subsequent projects. Gaps in existing datasets to model the teams’ systems shall be identified to recommend future data collection using the newly created standardized method/procedure.
Finally, the student will be encouraged to exploit synergies with other credited projects happening in parallel in a “sustainability task force” set up in collaboration between eSpace and the EPFL Rocket Team.
OUTCOME
- A toolkit including a procedure on how to create a new LCA dataset, adapted to MAKE projects
- A report including:
- State-of-affairs on existing LCA databases, and on dataset creation
- A list of identified missing datasets for modelling the Rocket Team’s systems
- New datasets created by following the procedure and lessons learnt
- Recommendations for future data collections
- A new database on Activity Browser (BrightWay2) with the newly created datasets for the Rocket Team
TASKS
- Literature review on LCA databases and how to create new life cycle assessment. datasets to complement an inventory
- Creation of a procedure adapted to the EPFL Rocket Team
- Review of existing LCA databases
- Identification of missing datasets to emit recommendations for future data collections
- Performing data collection on materials or processes as examples for the procedure and create the datasets in Activity Browser (BrightWay2)
CONTACT
Mathieu Udriot
Systems Engineer on Green Space Logistics
eSpace – EPFL Space Center
mathieu.udriot@epfl.ch
Joachim Despature
EPFL Rocket Team President
eSpace – EPFL Space Center
joachim.despature@epfl.ch
STATUS OF THE PROJECT
Eco-design: process to reduce environmental impacts of suborbital rockets’ parts at EPFL Rocket Team
Supervisor: eSpace (Mathieu Udriot/Prof. Jean-Paul Kneib)
Type of Project: Semester project, 1 student
Duration: 14 weeks (Official start/end date: Sep. 19th – Dec. 22nd 2023)
Submission of final report: TBD in January 2024
Final Presentation: TBD
Recommended: This project is suitable for a student interested in the space industry, the design of hardware parts, and launch vehicles’ environmental impacts reduction. Prior knowledge of systems engineering, environmental impacts, or design in any engineering topic is a plus.
CONTEXT
eSpace is actively researching and developing methods and products in space sustainability. This large topic includes work on space debris risks, life cycle assessment of space systems, mitigations of environmental impacts, and decision-making support tools to include sustainable aspects in the early design phase of space missions and systems.
Ecodesign is one of the three main axis of work at the ESA Cleanspace Office. The point is to include aspects from the environmental impacts on the ecosystems, toxicity, supply chain risks, etc. directly when designing a product / a part.
The EPFL Rocket Team is anticipating ecodesign projects in the future, once the team will have identified the environmental hotspots in their systems.
A first handbook for ecodesign in student’s associations was developed during a semester project with the support of the MAKE sustainability coach.
PROJECT SCOPE
This project will serve as a preparation for future ecodesign endeavours in space MAKE teams. The point is to expand on the ecodesign guide to create a method / toolkit that future engineering students at the Rocket Team or else can use and apply when designing new parts.
The eco-design kit must be modular enough so it can be used after a life cycle assessment in order to tackle any environmental hotspot, and help students come up with novel solutions that meet the requirements in terms of performance and of reduced footprint.
Finally, the student will be encouraged to exploit synergies with other credited projects happening in parallel in a “sustainability task force” set up in collaboration between eSpace and the EPFL Rocket Team.
OUTCOME
- Updates / revisions / recommendations / precisions based on the existing ecodesign guide for MAKE teams, specifically for space MAKE teams
- A toolkit to apply eco-design to future design endeavour by the team
- A report including:
- A state-of-the-art regarding the eco-design process
- Results of an example eco-designed part using the toolkit
TASKS
- Literature review on the state-of-the-art regarding the eco-design process (in particular in the space sector)
- Adapting the eco-design process and MAKE guide to the EPFL Rocket Team, preparation of a toolkit
- Performing an example run with the kit on a selected part to see if eco-design can be implemented (part to be defined by the student in collaboration with the team and supervisors)
CONTACT
Mathieu Udriot
Systems Engineer on Green Space Logistics
eSpace – EPFL Space Center
mathieu.udriot@epfl.ch
Joachim Despature
EPFL Rocket Team President
eSpace – EPFL Space Center
joachim.despature@epfl.ch
STATUS OF THE PROJECT
Martian exploration with an airship
Supervisor: eSpace (Pr. Jean-Paul Kneib), Mars Society Switzerland, Pr. Claude Nicollier
Type of Project: Minor, Semester, or Master thesis, 1-3 students
Duration: 14 weeks or 17 weeks
Submission of final report: TBD
Final Presentation: TBD
Recommended: general knowledge of space systems, interest and experience in systems engineering (1st project), knowledge in material science and space mechanisms (2nd project), knowledge of spacecrafts CDH and ADCS (3rd project).
CONTEXT
Using an airship on Mars would be a way of bridging the gap with existing means of exploration (orbiters and rovers) in terms of travelled distances and observable features. Due to Mars’ extremely thin atmosphere, a very voluminous envelope is necessary to generate enough buoyancy to carry a payload. Moreover, using a form of propulsion is required in order to have some control over the observed zones, which in turns adds significant mass. The main challenge is thus to keep the airship’s mass and volume within a feasible range, in terms of materials, transport and deployment, while keeping sufficient performance to provide useful observation capabilities.
PROJECT SCOPE
Feasibility studies performed by students in partnership with the Mars Society Switzerland during the last three years showed the Martian airship concept to be promising and led to participation to two major space conferences. The goal is now to finish studying the missing aspects’ feasibility in order to close the preliminary conception phase and conclude on the strengths and shortcomings. To advance towards this goal, one or more of the following topics need to be investigated in more depth.
TASKS
All tasks are open for discussion, but the three main objects of study are:
- System engineering of the airship (Master project preferred):
Previous studies highlighted the difficulties associated with the project, especially regarding the envelope. As a first stage, you will need to get a good understanding of the current overall system and its difficulties. Then, the results from the previous studies need to be gathered in order to update the entire system’s design and make sure everything is coherent. To benefit from a denser atmosphere, changing the operation zone is currently considered. The zone of interest being at a higher latitude than the previous one, it is also colder in winter and has less solar irradiance, the existing sizing should hence be adjusted accordingly. In a second stage you will define the gondola’s architecture and size it in accordance with the other subsystems (envelope, propulsion, power) to complete the design. The change of operation zone to a higher latitude may allow positioning the solar panels under rather than atop the balloon which obviously will have general consequences on EDL and on deployment that should be considered.
- Transport, transit, and deployment of the airship (Semester project):
Several solutions to deploy the airship were investigated during the past semester but none selected yet. In particular, demonstrating that the airship could effectively be stowed to fit within a fairing and safely deployed is a key point. Presently, on account of the limited launch windows, the airship might have to wait several months for the wanted Martian season to come before being put in operation. Studying the survivability of the various components in orbit and on the ground is therefore important. The problem might change in case the operation zone is modified, in particular since the atmosphere density will change. Comparing the inflation time and overall opportunities offered by a couple of different locations would therefore help selecting the final operation zone. Finally, an estimation of the airship’s lifetime should also be performed.
- Airship operations, avionics and data handling (Semester project):
The airship is not intended for a single use but thought as a general platform for scientific surveys. Relevant reference instruments should be selected in order to estimate the amount of data they generate and how to process it. The sensors and avionics necessary for partial autonomy of the airship also need to be defined. Finally, a trade-off analysis of the communication strategies with Earth, be it to send scientific data, telemetry or receive commands, should be performed.
CONTACT
Romeo Tonasso
romeo.tonasso@gmail.com
STATUS OF THE PROJECT
EPFL Rocket Team
Click HERE to visit the EPFL Rocket Team’s projects page.
EPFL Spacecraft Team
Click HERE to visit the EPFL Spacecraft Team’s projects page.
Xplore
Click HERE to visit Xplore’s projects page.
Space Situational Awareness
Click HERE to visit SSA’s projects page.
Asclepios
Click HERE to visit Asclepios’s projects page.