Guaranteeing the future of space activities by protecting the environment Reaching for the sky leaves footprints on the

ground. What price is paid by our terrestrial and space environments for the exploration and exploitation of space? How might environmental impacts be reduced in the future? With the Clean Space initiative, ESA will devote increasing attention to the environmental impacts of its activities, both on Earth and in space. The first images of Earth from space helped underscore the fragility of our terrestrial environment, and the need to protect it. Today the environment is one of the fastest-moving sectors of European and world law. The space industry is not excused from these laws; it must operate within the same jurisdiction as the rest of the planet. ESA has long been committed to maintaining the highest environmental standards for European citizens. Clean Space seeks to expand ESAs knowledge of its own environmental impacts. This involves assessing the impacts of ESA's programmes with a view to adopting an eco-friendly approach, as a way of minimising these impacts in future. As well as ESAs own activities, attention will be paid to work performed by European industry on its behalf, in order to characterise their impact on both the terrestrial environment and near-Earth space as fully as possible. The process of ensuring the Agencys compliance with current and upcoming regulations marks a first step in the process of transitioning its activities to a more sustainable footing through the adoption of clean technologies.

Why is it needed?

Liftoff of Ariane VA206

The quest to be environmentally friendly is transforming the competitive landscape as astute companies, agencies and businesses turn eco-friendly design into a new frontier of innovation. For ESA, standing aside from this general trend is not an option. Knowledge of the environmental impact of Agency activities is, and will be, increasingly requested by ESAs industrial, institutional and international partners, under pressure from their customers, employees and stakeholders. While space may be a low-volume industry when compared to other terrestrial industries (for instance, there are millions more cars produced each year than there are satellites) but space activities can have a wide reach: rocket launches, for example, are the only human activity that affects all segments of the atmosphere. New legislative demands and regulations such as the European Commissions regulation on the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) and Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive overseeing toxic substances threaten to impact the space industry by imposing potential limitations on currently essential materials. Turning a threat into an opportunity While it may seem tempting to adhere to the lowest environmental standards for as long as possible, it is smarter to comply with the most

stringent rules, and do so before they are enforced. Environmental regulations in Europe have implications for space programmes, the most immediate implication being the disruption of qualified materials and processes. By becoming a pioneer in adopting an eco-friendly approach, Europe can develop new processes and technologies and be well-positioned to help shape and comply with future regulations in these areas. Action is necessary to turn a threat into an opportunity. Mapping the road ahead saves crucial time. Enterprises that focus on meeting emerging norms gain more time to experiment with materials, technologies and processes and this yields substantial first-mover advantage in terms of fostering innovation, which will enable agencies like ESA to change the way they think about technologies and processes. Danger of space debris Recently updated regulations such as ESAs own Requirements on Space Debris Mitigation for Agency Projects (applicable to all ESA missions), the French Space Operations Act and the United Nations Outer Space Treaty require that more attention is paid to safeguarding Earths orbital environment. Numerous analyses worldwide have shown the need for space debris removel, to contend with the proliferation of space debris. The only way to preserve key orbits for future use is to shrink the current amount of debris in absolute terms, which will require novel technologies and approaches for the removal of debris and the design of non-debris creating missions.
What are its objectives?

Clean Space aims to make ESA an exemplary space agency in the area of terrestrial and space environmental protection. It will ensure the sustainable forward-looking use of space by ESA to preserve it as a viable economic arena, continue to promote a high environmental standard for European citizens and position European industry at the foreground of new green technology markets. Through expanding its knowledge of the environmental impact of its activities, ESA will identify environmentally friendly technologies and processes that will minimise the environmental impact of ESAs operations. Information gathered during the monitoring of environmental legislation compliance will be used to prepare and mitigate against possible supply chain disruptions through the development of alternative materials and processes. ESA will also support and promote the interests of preserving Earth's orbital environment as a safe zone in which to operate satellites, by limiting or minimising causes of harmful interference in space activities. Winning markets, saving space European industry should also gain a competitive advantage in world markets, having been encouraged to develop new green propellants, new materials and processes and green electronics that not only alleviate safety and environmental concerns but cut use of raw materials, waste, production costs and schedules, compared to alternative options.

How is it implemented?

Due to its far-reaching nature, Clean Space is being introduced as a cross-cutting theme within ESA's Technology programmes as part of Agenda 2015. Clean technologies for space are being defined by ESA as those which contribute to the reduction of the environmental impact of space programmes, taking into account the overall life-cycle and the management of residual waste and pollution resulting from space activities, both in the terrestrial eco-sphere and in space. The term clean technologies encompasses both green technologies to mitigate the environmental impacts of space programmes on Earth and space technologies to reduce the impact of ESA missions on the space debris environment (in terms of mitigation and remediation). Clean Space implementation is organised around four distinct branches:

Eco-design Green technologies Space debris mitigation Technologies for space debris remediation.

Eco-design

New mission design proceeding at ESTEC's Concurrent Design Facility

A common eco-design framework will be established for the European space sector, including the

development of tools and systems to evaluate the environmental impact and legislation compliance of programmes. Past, present and future examples of legislation impacting the space industry include the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the European Commissions Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive and the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation all placing restrictions on particular substances used in space programmes. The information gathered from the monitoring and evaluation of legislation compliance will be used in the first step of assessing a candidate green technology to facilitate the development of alternatives to a material under question.

In addition, an environmental impacts will be assessed for each space project, evaluating the possible positive or negative impacts that a project may have on the environment. Its purpose is to ensure that decision makers consider environmental impacts when deciding to proceed with a project. Several aspects can be considered when assessing environmental impacts: within the space sector the term is often associated with toxicity impacts while in the mass media the link is made with carbon footprints. Model being shown in CDF session

In reality an important and complex list of impact categories can be analysed, including issues such as:

Climate change Ozone depletion Resources depletion Toxicity, both human and environmental Water use Land use

Each category has its own importance and a product might have a limited impact in one category and a significantly impact in another, making it difficult to clearly state a product is in absolute terms better than another. Another difficulty is in quantifying impacts due to interactions between emissions and complex systems such as atmosphere, nature, flora, fauna and human systems.

Life Cycle Assessment In past years there has been an attempt to reach consensus on evaluation methods, for instance through the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The European Commissions Joint Research Centre has produced a standardised ISO-certified method and management tool called the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and it is widely considered that this tool is the most appropriate to evaluate the environmental impact of industrial activities.

Zefiro 9-A test firing

A LCA quantifies and assesses the emissions, resources consumed and pressures on human health and the environment that can be attributed to different goods and services throughout their life cycle. It seeks to quantify all physical exchanges with the environment, sometimes termed the cradle to grave method. The key aim is to avoid burden shifting meaning to avoid that minimising impacts at one stage of the life cycle leads to larger increases elsewhere. In the context of Clean Space, the plan is to establish a common framework to be used by European space agencies and industry when performing spacecraft design, including dedicated databases and tools for space activities. This framework will also allow the quantification of potential benefits of new technologies. A preliminary version of the LCA tool is currently being implemented in some mission studies undertaken by the Concurrent Design Facility at ESAs technical centre ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Preliminary LCA studies are being undertaken on launchers and some satellites. In the coming years, LCA studies on propellants, power and thermal control subsystems, manufacturing processes and ground testing will be carried out. Detailed studies are also planned to take into account the physical and chemical effects of rocket launches on the environment, particularly the effects of their exhaust on stratospheric ozone.

Benefits of being green Complying with the most stringent of environmental legislations and doing so before they are enforeced adds up to a smart move: it not only enables the early mitigation of potential supply chain disruption but also places Europe in a position to help shape and comply with future legislation in this area. The identification of environmental hotspots will facilitate the selection of technology developments that have the potential to reduce European space progrmmaes' environnmental impacts and - most importantly - help to reduce waste, energy consumption and the use of hazardous materials that

require costly safety procedures, in the process placing Europe at a competitive advantage. Green technologies

Preparation for hydrazine fuelling

Characterising the environmental impacts of current activities is one side of the coin; the other is to develop green technologies as a means of mitigating these impacts and remaining compliant with environmental legislation. In summary, green technologies shall allow ESA to:

Reduce the energy consumption during the life-cycle of a space mission Use resources in a more sustainable way Limit and control the use of harmful substances for human health and biodiversity Adopt a proactive approach towards environmental legislation Manage the residual waste and polluting substances resulting from space activities.

A candidate green technology shall be assessed through an 'eco-statement'. Each candidate shall have a dossier compiled including a multi-criteria Life Cycle Assessment at system level, addressing not only the impacts that fall under the parameters recommended by the

EU's Joint Research Centre but also those impact indicators that are considered as essential by the Agency: natural environment, human health, natural resources, climate change and energy efficiency. An eco-statement should also address the assessment of the technology end-of-life, including its waste management on the ground or evaluation of its space debris generation potential.

The dossier shall also list and classify all the harmful substances handled or produced throughout the technology's life-cycle, and will evaluate the frequency of hazard events and assess its consequences for the environment. A green technology should not fulfill its green requirements if its impact reduction creates added impacts further down its life cycle or within the system it operates in, without reducing the overall environmental burden.

Test firing

Candidate technologies Green technologies identified to date include green propulsion, aimed at reducing the toxicity of spacecraft propellants. Classical chemical propellants such as hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide demand special protective measures such as cumbersome Self Contained Protective Ensemble (SCAPE) suits for fuelling technicians and extra valves in flight systems as well as special handling procedures. Hydrazine has also been included on REACHs list of Substances of Very High Concern, and other toxic liquid propellants may yet be added. The HPGP thruster risk has driven research into green propulsion, which has been part of ESAs Technology Harmonisation roadmap since 2002, with some 38 European companies or universities working on the subject, with some success in developing ADNand hydrogen peroxide alternatives.

The next steps to be taken include the qualification of a green monopropellant suitable for a spacecraft upper stage, then compatible thrusters, moving onto hybrid propellants and associated hardware. Other candidate green technologies include advanced joining technologies, replacement of chromates used for surface coating and bonding, tartaric sulphurising anodising for corrosion protection and bonding, lead-free assembly, solvent cleaning and green electronics lacking toxic materials.

Example of additive manufacturing

Novel manufacturing techniques and processes will also be considered, such as additive manufacturing, where a product is built up gradually layer by layer instead of by whittling down a large block, saving on raw materials and energy. Space debris mitigation

Trackable objects in orbit around Earth

Humanity has left a significant mark on the space beyond Earth. In more than half a century of space activities, more than 4800 launches have placed some 6000 satellites into orbit, of which less than a thousand are still operational today. More than 12 000 orbiting items in total are regularly tracked by the US Space Surveillance Network and maintained in their catalogue, which covers objects larger than approximately 5 to 10cm in low Earth orbit (LEO) and 30cm to 1m at geostationary altitudes (GEO). Only 6% of their catalogued orbital population represent operational satellites, while 38% can be attributed to decommissioned satellites, spent upper stages and mission-related objects (launch

adaptors, lens covers, etc.). The remaining 56% originates from more than 200 in-orbit fragmentations which have been recorded since 1961. Except for a few collisions (less than 10 accidental and intentional events), the majority of the 200 break-ups were explosions of spacecraft and upper stages typically due to leftover fuel, material fatigue or pressure increase in batteries. Space debris is recognised as a major risk to space missions , an object of just 1cm size can expend the energy of an exploding hand-grenade when impacting a satellite. ESA is playing a major role in the establishment of requirements to mitigate the production of fresh space debris. While ESA has a limited contribution to the current space debris environment it and European industry is playing a major role in the establishment of requirements to mitigate the production of fresh space debris and their implementation and verification in missions.

Reducing mass from high density debris regions The most effective means of stabilising the space debris environment is simply the reduction of mass within regions with high densities of space debris. Corresponding requirements therefore mandate the avoidance of injection of mission related objects into densely populated Debris objects - mostly debris - in regions such as low-Earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary orbit low Earth orbit (LEO) - view over (GEO). They also request the removal of space systems that the equator interfere with the LEO region not later than 25 years after the end of the mission. In practise this is implemented by either launching into an orbit altitude on which the natural orbital lifetime is short, to reduce the orbital height to such altitudes after the mission, or to re-orbit in a way that no part of the orbit interferes with the LEO region anymore. Iin GEO satellites are to be disposed of in adjacent graveyard orbits to keep the geostationary ring in use. Mitigation requirements also ban space systems from undergoing uncontrolled re-entry if the associated ground casualty expectancy exceeds 0.0001 per event. For such cases a controlled reentry over unpopulated areas is mandated instead. Clean Space will investigate technologies that enable, simplify and make the compliance of missions with mitigation requirements more efficient and will oversee efforts to comply with these mitigation, seeking to plug current technological gaps in this area. Small micro-satellites in LEO do not always have full orbital control capability while larger satellites require extra propellant and a high-thrust engine to ensure a controlled re-entry, increasing their

mass and cost.

End-of-life re-entry technologies Hence, the development of compact, robust and autonomous systems for de-orbiting of space craft in EIO and the re-orbiting of space craft in GEO is necessary. Passive de-orbiting systems such as drag augmentation devices and tethers can be used for de-orbiting and re-entry (uncontrolled)of small satellites in LEO. direct and controlled reControlled re-entry entry are required, A number of candidate technologies can be applied to accelerate orbit decay, de-orbiting of space craft in LEO and re-orbiting of space craft in GEO, such as what are called terminator sails, with deployable or inflatable booms or electrodynamic tethers using producing force from Earths magnetic field to increase the drag and speed up the spacecraft decay to speed up the dragging of satellites back to Earth by the atmosphere. Even estimating how close a satellite has come to its end-of-life remains difficult: reliably measuring the amount of propellant in fuel tanks is challenging, because standard fuel gauges do not work in weightless environmentsness. An accurate propellant gauging system is essential for end-of-life operations.

End-of-life passivation In order to avert the risk of spacecraft break-up which could result in debris scattering, the passivation of propulsive systems and power systems could be employed. This involves the venting of remaining propellant and pressurant from the tanks at the end of missions and the discharge of batteries.

'Design for Demise' Mission controllers need to know that space systems fulfil the on-ground safety requirement by design when undergoing an uncontrolled re-entry, a concept know as 'Design for Demise'. This engineering process was established for the intentional design, assembly, integration and testing of spacecraft so that a spacecraft will break-up once it enters the Earths atmosphere to such an extent so that it will not cause a threat to people or property on Earth.

Space debris environmental modelling Research will also be conducted into modelling the behaviour of the dynamic ever-changing space

debris environment, as well as the development of technical means to collect measurements on man-made objects between 1mm and a few centimetres in diameter which remain invisible to current detection methods within the most critical orbital altitudes between 800 to 1000 km.

Technologies for space debris remediation

Explosions of satellites & rocket bodies

Simply stopping future space missions from producing more debris is not sufficient to preserve key orbits in a usable state. A 2009 joint study of the current space debris environment performed by all major space agencies (with NASA and ESA among them) showed that even if no further space launches take place, then the space debris population will continue to increase, resulting in a continuously growing collision rate. Importantly,as the total amount of debris increases, so does the probability of collisions, leading in turn to the potential irreversible pollution of orbits due to the cascading effect of collisions and feedback collisions unless something is done to interrupt the pattern. The study suggests that the population of large and massive objects has reached a critical density in LEO. In turn this means that the number of these objects mostly physically intact, for now needs to be actively controlled. Active removal is most efficient in reducing the number of collisions and debris produced when the target objects have a high mass and high collision probabilities, being located in densely populated regions. In addition, target objects should be at high enough altitudes so that the orbital lifetime of the resulting fragments after a collision is long, and thus triggering a long term environmental

impact. Technologies for object removal ESA de-orbited the 2-tonne ERS-2 satellite in August/September 2011 into a lower-traffic orbit, offering a good example of responsible spaceflight activities. The preservation of the space environment for spaceflight, however, is a global task and active removal is a challenge that is to be mastered in a global effort. As a technical agency and as an incubator for new technological approaches, ESA considers active removal technologies to be a strategic goal.

ATV-1 reentry

So one objective of Clean Space in this area is to streamline the technology developments required for a targeted de-orbit of a spacecraft, with system studies planned to consider this. Advanced guidance, navigation and control sensors and techniques will be needed first to dock with a target should it prove to be non-cooperative and then to control it for manoeuvring, once captured.

Since active removal needs to be applied on a broad scale, the dynamic characteristics of various potential targets need to be analysed. In an approach consisting of measurements and modelling, the attitude motion of large decomissioned space systems needs to be characterised and understood. This is essential because the selection of capture mechanisms depends on this factor. Clean Space will build on existing research by ESA and its national space agency partners, such as the Agencys RObotic GEostationary orbit Restorer (ROGER) study for a roving debris-removal robot and the German Aerospace Center DLRs Deutsche Orbital Servicing mission (DEOS) twin-satellite mission to investigate capture and control techniques.

Monica Politano

Applying a technological point of view Monica Politano

interview Monica Politano heads the Planning and Implementation section of ESAs Basic Technology Research Programme (TRP) ESAs main ideas factory, originating new technologies and planning their development to the point other technology programmes or missions can take them up. She played a pivotal part in the start of ESA's first activities related to environmental sustainability, anticipating Clean Space. TRP involves long-term planning looking at least five to 10 years in the future, identifying future mission requirements and coming up with ideas, activities and programmes to meet them, explains Monica. In general, flight projects first priority is to fly healthy missions for as cheaply as possible, and are usually based on proven and reliable technologies. On the other end, R&D, although still trying to minimise risks, involves a very different approach: the TRP is a kind of innovation factory, where we are open to

experimentation and a certain amount of failure is to be expected. But to actually get to a position of flying innovative technologies in turn involves a large amount of testing to prove these new things are really safe and reliable, so theres really a double role. Monica became involved with what would become Clean Space by overseeing a project for ESAs General Studies Programme tasked with investigating innovative ways of working that examined the subject of environmental sustainability. This was around five years ago, one of the first studies on the subject, Monica recalls. Sustainability was not yet a live issue for the Agency, but more a feeling that was growing, related to the ethical interests of many people and the evolution of European and worldwide regulations. The idea was to look at the issues arising in a coordinated way. Europe is becoming subject to a growing number of environmental regulations. ESA and the

space business can, to a certain extent, cope with this thanks to regulatory waivers. With Clean Space the aim is to tackle this subject in a more critical, proactive way, and apply a technological point of view, in a way that might actually open up some promising opportunities.

Its not really a fancy idea, but quite a CDF in session downto-Earth one. For instance, in the area of materials, lead for soldering is being phased out. However, the space industry could still require it, because tin solder without lead can grow harmful whiskers in space conditions. So we could get a waiver and be allowed to continue working in this way. But we would no longer be able to source such a product on the open market. Supporting such a specific solution would be very costly for what is, in the end, a relatively small industrial sector. And, in general, waivers

wont last forever. So there are solid technical and legal reasons we should study these areas and look for less harmful and potentially betterperforming alternatives. This GSP study carried out the first complete look at the legal and regulatory framework, with the aid of ESAs Sustainable Development Office.

This study also opened the door for the Life cycle assessment first time to considering legal and social issues together with more traditional technical and systems aspects, making use of the Concurrent Design Facility here at ESTEC. That included consideration of the Life Cycle Assessment tool when is it useful for space projects, and with what data? Im happy to say that most of what can be done we are doing already space is quite a constrained industry with many regulations, and anything but wasteful.

However we still need to develop our general awareness further and offer all the technical competencies we can to develop a more targeted approach to clean design. The focus is really on technologies since that is what we do best. Its quite a critical time all over the world and also a hectic one. Member States and European industry showed a lot of interest at the recent Ministerial Council in the prospect of new technologies and materials which could well prove beneficial economically as well as being the right thing to do. Monica is an aerospace engineer by training who participated in the first microgravity parabolic flight open to European students back in 1994. After working in industry for almost ten years she joined ESA a decade ago.