From September 17th to 19th, the 3rd workshop on Life Cycle Assessment of Space Transportation Systems took place at the Institute of Space Systems at the University of Stuttgart. 35 experts from politics, space agencies, industry and research came together to exchange about the current status and possible approaches to assess the environmental impact of rockets.
The aim of the yearly workshop series is to summarize and expand the state of knowledge on the environmental impact of space transportation systems. In addition to presentations on the current state of research, the participants discussed in three working groups in seven sessions. The working group "Ecodesign" addressed the implementation of ecological aspects in the design of rockets and the required LCA methodology. A second group was discussion the “Operational Impact”, focusing on the impacts from launch and reusability. The third working group focused on the “Disposal Impact” at the end of life. The discussions were established to answer the following main in the workshop:
- How can we assess and mitigate the environmental impact of space transportation systems?
- What knowledge gaps exist in the assessment and mitigation of environmental impacts?
- What measures and tools are necessary to close these knowledge gaps?
The results will be published in the form of a white paper. We would like to thank everyone for their participation and fruitful discussions.
