title: Towards the integration of orbital space use in Life Cycle Impact Assessment.
abstract: A rising sustainability concern is occurring in the space sector: 29,000 human-made objects, larger than 10cm are orbiting the Earth but only 6% are operational spacecrafts. Today, space debris is today a significant and constant danger to all space missions. Consequently, it becomes compelled to design new space missions considering End-of-Life requirements in order to ensure the sustainable use of space orbits. Furthermore, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been identified by the European Space Agency as an adequate tool to measure the environmental impact of spacecraft missions. Hence, our challenge is to integrate orbital space use into Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) to broaden the scope of LCA for space systems. The generation of debris in the near-Earth's orbital regions leads to a decrease in volume availability. The Area-of-Protection (AoP) 'resources' seems to be the most relevant reflection of this depletion. To address orbital space use in a comprehensive way, we propose a first attempt at establishing an impact pathway linking outer space use to resources. This framework will be the basis for defining new indicator(s) related to orbital space use.
authors.affiliation: CyVi group, ISM, Université de Bordeaux, UMR 5255, F-33400 Talence, France; Airbus Safran Launchers, Design for Environment, BP 20011, F-33165 St Médard en Jalles, France.
authors.forename: Thibaut
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Maury
authors.affiliation: CyVi group, ISM, Université de Bordeaux, UMR 5255, F-33400 Talence, France; Bordeaux INP - ENSCBP, ISM, UMR 5255, F-33607 Pessac, France; CNRS, ISM, UMR 5255, F-33400 Talence, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Loubet
authors.affiliation: Airbus Safran Launchers, Design for Environment, BP 20011, F-33165 St Médard en Jalles, France.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ouziel
authors.affiliation: Airbus Safran Launchers, Design for Environment, BP 20011, F-33165 St Médard en Jalles, France.
authors.forename: Maud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saint-Amand
authors.affiliation: Airbus Safran Launchers, Design for Environment, BP 20011, F-33165 St Médard en Jalles, France.
authors.forename: Ludovic
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dariol
authors.affiliation: CyVi group, ISM, Université de Bordeaux, UMR 5255, F-33400 Talence, France; CNRS, ISM, UMR 5255, F-33400 Talence, France. Electronic address: guido.sonnemann@u-bordeaux.fr.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sonnemann
keywords: Impact pathway; Life Cycle Assessment; Outer space; Resource use; Space debris