Sustainable Space Hub

Logo Complet fond clair couleur

eSpace - EPFL Space Center is a pioneer in space sustainability. With the Clean Space Initiative, initially proposed to deorbit Swisscube which eventually spin-off from EPFL as the ClearSpace-1 mission to recover the Vega Secondary Payload Adapter (VESPA), the Center can draw on a decade of experience in space sustainability. More recently, in 2019 eSpace initiated a two-year pilot phase of a research initiative on sustainable space logistics (RISSL). This initiative was the starting point of several consortium projects that attracted many stakeholders, resulting in several publications and the development of a space logistics modelling software for mission profile evaluation and optimization.

The success of this pilot phase encouraged the Center to continue exploring this new domain. Current research includes life cycle assessment of space transportation vehicles, accounting for space debris risks and the reentry phase, space situational awareness, optimisation of space logistics, and mission design. These projects will help understanding and improving the situation in space. It is especially important to assess future impacts of new missions early in the design phase, in order to support space agencies and industry in designing new concepts with lower environmental impacts.

In order to unite EPFL’s forces in the domain of sustainability in space, eSpace launched in 2023 the Sustainable Space Hub (SSH). The goal of the Hub is to coherently manage and foster the growth of these topics. The hub is connecting these individual projects in a workflow that rests on three intertwined pillars: measure, understand, and act for space sustainability.

The three pillars of the Sustainable Space Hub:

  • Measure

    Fill the gaps of unknown space objects

  • Object characterization
  • Space Situational Awareness (focused on Space debris)
  • 6D pose estimation for active debris removal missions
  • rocket on a computer icon

    Understand

    Analyse and quantify environmental risks and impacts of missions

  • Life cycle assessment
  • Space Logistics Optimization
  • Material behaviour during atmospheric reentry and under high velocity impacts
  • sat in orbit around earth icon

    Act

    Include assessments in space mission design since the early phase

  • Space Sustainability Rating
  • Concurrent Engineering

Main Projects

Have a deeper look at our main projects below. See also our past projects.

Space_transportation_ecosystem_pillars-card

Sustainable Space Logistics

Space logistics is under a paradigm change, with launch cadence increasing. Greater risks are posed by space debris, and new regulations are applied on environmental impacts, meaning new space missions and vehicles must be sustainable over the entire life cycle.

READ MORE
rocket launched in the sky

REACT

Assessment and comparison of the environmental impacts of space transportation vehicles during their life cycle.

READ MORE
ssr_card

Space Sustainability Rating

SSR is a rating system with the mission to Encourage space actors to design and implement sustainable & responsible space missions for the long-term sustainability of the space environment. 

READ MORE
cdf-card

Concurrent Design Facility

eSpace is running a Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) which includes infrastructure, tools and support to carry concurrent design studies. We have implemented the CDF for education purposes and to offer it as a service to research partners and external companies.

READ MORE
policiy-card

Space sustainability: Policy options and interrelations with Earth system governance

More than one million objects larger than 1cm are orbiting the Earth, posing significant challenges to current and future operations in the space environment, and potentially impacting people on Earth through loss or disruption of space-based infrastructures or activities due to a collision.

READ MORE