During the trade-off phase of early space mission design as well as during posterior analysis of a specific design, there are no standardised ways to assess its sustainability. Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been recognized as a suited approach (in particular by the ESA CleanSpace office) but there are still debates on how to perform the LCA of a space mission and how to create a single score.
The research objective is to assess the benefits and feasibility of adding a single rating score for a space mission's LCA to include in the space sustainability rating. After this initial phase, the new module will be developed and tested. This will be done by means of assessing the current state-of-the-art of space LCA (through the Literature Research), interviewing the industry on their needs and current practices, designing a LCA rating system, and testing it using provided dummy and/or real data of a space mission.