Towards an Environmentally Sustainable Space Future: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Assess Terrestrial and Orbital Interdependencies

As space activities accelerate, concerns over their environmental impacts—both on Earth and in orbit—have grown significantly. This paper presents an interdisciplinary, modular life-cycle assessment framework designed to evaluate the sustainability of space missions during their Design & Manufacturing and Launch & Propulsion phases. The model integrates both qualitative and quantitative metrics to assess emissions and energy consumption associated with office operations, travel, material extraction, component processing, launch vehicle transportation, and propellant use. To demonstrate feasibility, the framework is applied to a case study of an Active Debris Removal mission. The use case explores real-world parameters related to spacecraft mass, material composition, launch logistics, and operational infrastructure. The analysis highlights the often-overlooked terrestrial environmental impacts associated with ostensibly sustainability-focused missions. The proposed framework introduces a sustainability metric to complement traditional Technology Readiness Level assessments, offering a means to integrate environmental considerations into early mission planning. Its modular structure enables adaptation across a variety of mission types, including In-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing, and In-Situ Resource Utilization. By providing a structured and adaptable tool, this work supports informed decision-making and helps embed environmental accountability into future space systems design and governance.