Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Commercial Space Transportation Activities in the United State

The Commercial Space Transportation (CST) activities in the United States are increasing and have increased over 50% in the last year. The launches in the United States for commercial purposes are expected to increase another 50% in the next 3--5 years. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental assessments do provide the regulatory environmental analysis for launching space vehicles within the United States. However, the environmental impacts from these launches have not been fully characterized. One method to characterize environmental impacts from a system is through conducting a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based on an international standard, ISO14040. The results from this environmental LCA will augment the NEPA efforts for launch activities. The European Space Agency uses LCAs to evaluate their environmental impacts or burdens for specific launchers. Instead of evaluating a specific launcher, this study focused on the consumables used for the launch of one space vehicle. Therefore, this study had the overall goal to characterize those environmental burdens and impacts of one space vehicle launch in the United States with emphasis on the Use Phase.;The research contribution of this study advances knowledge and analytic application of the LCA to U.S. space launch operations. This study is the first ELCA to begin to characterize environmental domain from the launch of one space vehicle. Each of the objectives added new knowledge to identify and illustrate those environmental impacts from CST launch activities in the United States. From the sensitivity analysis, essential data and process information was identified so a U.S. space mission LCA can be more refined for future LCAs and to enhance options for reduced environmental impacts and better decision making in mission profiles and eco-design. Finally, the STEP-Ls generated a quick-look view for operators, environmental professionals, systems engineers, and other decision makers on each of the launch missions evaluated in this study.;SimaPro Software version 8.3.2 and IMPACT2002+ was used to conduct the life cycle inventory and assessment. Data inputs were gathered from public accessible documents, industry websites, technical journals, and textbooks. Each consumable was assessed one-at-a-time (OAT) to determine its environmental impacts per Launch and then all the consumables were analyzed as a whole system per Launch.;Finally, electricity and water are minimal contributors to the environmental burden. However, the diesel-generator was the largest contributor of impact within the electricity consumable. Finding another source of electricity for back-up power and other support equipment rather than using the diesel would decrease the environmental impacts significantly. Transportation was evaluated for consumables traveling to the launch facility from the manufacturing. The west and southeast data for both diesel and gasoline trucks were used in this study. The diesel truck on the west showed higher contributions in both the characterization and the damage areas than the diesel truck in the southeast. This higher contribution might be due to the additives and refining processes used to produce the diesel in the west.;A qualitative input using the Delphi Method was applied to compare the base-case results with the results of a panel of selected experts. An online tool, QUALTRICs was used to administer the Delphi method surveys. The comparison showed the top two damage areas for Delphi Method and SimaPro results agreement were in: the reusable rocket booster impacted Human health, expendable rocket impacted Climate change, LOx/LH2 impacted Human Health and Resources, and the other propellants impacted Resources.;Green technology recommendations included replace diesel with solar for the electricity, replacing titanium process (Kroll) with the Armstrong RTM process, replacing conventional manufacturing for parts with 3-D additive manufacturing, and replacing kerosene (RP-1) with methane as a fuel. A notional green technology STEP-L was generated with solar replacement for diesel-generated electricity. The comparison of the green STEP-L with the reusable rocket with LOx/RP-1 results showed less impact to the damage areas. Green notional launch campaign reduced damage areas of Resources by 1.6%, reduced Climate change by 2.1%, reduced Ecosystem quality by 1.6% and reduced Human health by 1.3%. Overall, impact change for all damage areas combined is 1.5%. The STEP-L for the notional launch campaign with green technology additions generated slight reductions in impact to all damage areas. Even though the reductions appear small, adding a green technology to a full launch campaign can provide a meaningful decrease in environmental impacts. The framework for inserting the green technology recommendations can be transferred to other similar government operations. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).