Sustainability is an objective that permeates more and more activities and has also begun to enter into spaceflight. Although attention is mainly put towards the environmental impacts of space activities, economic and social aspects also need to be included for sustainability assessments. To measure sustainability impacts in all three dimensions on a product scale, Life-Cycle-Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) is a typical method in many industries. However, it has not been standardized or regularly implemented for space activities. Aiming at collecting suitable indicators for LCSA for space activities, this paper presents a systematic review about LCSA as applied for space activities and other fields of activities to accommodate all dimensions of sustainability. After obtaining a list of indicators for each sustainability dimension, these were evaluated by actors from the space field for application for space activities and recommended for further use. The results are presented and discussed in this paper.

Comprehensive sustainability assessment of space activities is still a fledging undertaking. Current consensus is that it is most effective to initiate analysing and addressing sustainability impacts as early as possible during a mission or program as most impacts stem from decisions made during the design phase. If future space settlements are to be (nearly) in-situ sustainable they need to be drafted to that purpose as early as possible. Evaluation of sustainability impacts due to space activities is in its infancy, even more so for in-situ outside the boundaries of Earth. This situation is associated with significant knowledge gaps concerning e.g. adaptation of assessment methods to the space context, or sustainability impact data of space engineering specific processes. These gaps significantly limit the ability to determine sustainability impacts and thus formulate mitigations. To bridge these knowledge gaps, within this paper it is shown how an adapted set of sustainability goals has been derived from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) via adaptation, a review process with an expert board, and trial application. These Space-In-Situ Sustainability Goals are meant to provide guidelines for designing large scale missions, human settlements, sustainably and to evaluate mission concepts accordingly, drawing from the heritage of the SDGs. Furthermore, the results of their application on four test cases are shown and ultimately their final iteration, based on that trial application.

After decades where human spaceflight missions have been reserved to low Earth orbit, recent years have seen mission proposals and even implemented plans, e.g. with the mission Artemis I, for returning to the lunar surface. SpaceX has published over various media (e.g., its official website, conference presentations, user manual) conceptual information for its reusable Starship to enable human exploration missions to the Martian surface by the end of the decade. The technological and human challenges associated with these plans are daunting. Such a mission at that distance would require excellent system reliability and in-situ-resource utilization on a grand scale, e.g. to produce propellant. The plans contain little details however and have not yet been reviewed concerning their feasibility. In this paper we show significant technological gaps in these plans. Based on estimates and extrapolated data, a mass model as needed to fulfill SpaceX’s plans could not be reproduced and the subsequent trajectory optimization showed that the current plans do not yield a return flight opportunity, due to a too large system mass. Furthermore, significant gaps exist in relevant technologies, e.g. power supply for the Martian surface. It is unlikely that these gaps can be closed until the end of the decade. We recommend several remedies, e.g. stronger international participation to distribute technology development and thus improve feasibility. Overall, with the limited information published by SpaceX about its system and mission scenario and extrapolation from us to fill information gaps, we were not able to find a feasible Mars mission scenario using Starship, even when assuming optimal conditions such as 100% recovery rate of crew consumables during flight.

Continuous missions to Low-Earth Orbit, Moon and even Mars missions are the prospect for the coming decades of especially human spaceflight. The actors in these missions are commercial and institutional, public and private. The bandwidth of planned missions is wide, ranging from scientific exploration to commercial exploitation. In-situ resource utilization is planned to support such missions and thus reduce the amount of effort needed for transportation of goods to mission regions, e.g. by supplying water or fuel on the lunar or Martian surface. In the past decades the concept of sustainable development and sustainability has been evolved and became more and more relevant for many aspects of human life and society. These terms have also migrated into more specialized fields such as spaceflight. This paper systematically reviews the concepts of sustainable development and sustainability which have been formulated in a spaceflight context implicitly and explicitly. For this purpose, four perspectives are defined which originate from either Earth or space and alternate with the addressed object between Earth and space as well. It is explained and discussed how these concepts manifest in a spaceflight context, how they evolved over time and which implications result from the respective point of view. Subsequently, the formulation of space in-situ sustainable development is coined and an outlook is given how to further evolve this centric idea to enable a comprehensive evaluation of mission scenarios and roadmaps with regard to their sustainability.

This review deals with the selection of the electric propulsion system (EPS) for the internationally developed and designed, primary nuclear-electric space tug International Nuclear Power and Propulsion System (INPPS). INPPS is scheduled for interplanetary missions to Mars and Jupiter moon Europa missions by the end of decade 2020. Regarding specific technical and mission parameters preselected electric thruster (ET) types, developed by international companies and institutions, are analysed, evaluated and investigated for a possible application as propulsion system (PS), the so-called CET (Cluster of Electric Thrusters). It is analysed whether solely electric thrusters, combined in an adequate CET, enable the envisaged interplanetary missions-robotic and astronautic/crewed with the INPPS flagship.Thruster clusters with strategic consortium considerations are analysed as a feasible PS of the INPPS. The studied CET consists of the following: (a) only European ETs, (b) combination of German and European ETs, (c) Japanese and European ETs or at least (d) Japanese, European and US thrusters. The main results are (1) Robotic and crewed INPPS mission to Mars/Europa are realizable with EPS only (no chemical propulsion is needed), (2) that every CET, except (c) of only Japanese and part of European thrusters, is capable to perform the main part of envisaged INPPS flagship mission orbit to Mars, back to Earth and to Jupiter/Europa moon.

The Moon has returned into the focus of human endeavors regarding human spaceflight, e.g., with NASA's Artemis program, ESA's Moon Village, and the Russian/Chinese International Lunar Research Station. In difference to the pathfinding missions of the Apollo-era, the goal for these future missions is to stay on the lunar surface for longer durations and inhabit the lunar environment (near-)permanently. This requires a different approach to be affordable, i.e., instead of resupply as mostly used on e.g., the International Space Station, resource management has to include recycling and in-situ utilization. The former especially calls for the application of so-called BLSS to allow providing essential life-support services to the crew without prohibitive resource consumption, which is economically not feasible to achieve with resupplies. Bio-regenerative-life-support systems have been researched for decades, yet the system complexity, technology advancements, and singular aspects as e.g., plant biology require more research, especially if combined as in a greenhouse. For instance, the understanding of how a microbiome develops in a closed environment and what implications the microbiome has on plant growth is still insufficient. Within the EDEN project, the German Aerospace Center built a lunar analogue greenhouse and operated it at the Neumayer-III research station in Antarctica for four years, testing the technology – which was not space hardware – and operations. Derived from this experience the next step in the project is to design and subsequently operate a ground test demonstrator for a lunar greenhouse, as close as possible to the actual space hardware and operations. This paper explains the current design and trade-offs that led to it. Furthermore, the concept of operations is shown to illustrate the demonstrator's utility for researching bioregenerative-life-support. Overall, the system presented is feasible and useful to close the gaps, currently still existing in this field of research, and thus a mission enabler for future long-duration human space exploration missions.

Skylab, Saljut, MIR, the International Space Station, and Tiangong have been space stations in low-Earth orbit (LEO), allowing access to a microgravity environment for scientific or technology demonstration experiments. Future applications planned for using resources in LEO are commercial (e.g., Axiom Space Station, Bigelow Commercial Space Station) or scientific (e.g., the Chinese Space Station). To analyze all possible needs of potential users, the authors have surveyed needs from a commercial and a scientific perspective, based on which a design has been elaborated allowing for a versatile, flexible and cost-effective platform. The Orbital Hub can serve as a core unit for a larger complex or act on its own. It consists of a base platform, permanently crewed, and a crew-tended Free Flyer facilitating experiments in an unperturbed environment. This chapter presents the design of the Orbital Hub and its capability to be used in combination with other space station concepts or even parts of the ISS, outlining, for example, its complementarity with the Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway and its advantages over larger platforms, such as the ISS. Implications concerning application, LEO resources, costs and key technologies are discussed, showing how a small platform ca be utilized to access those resources efficiently.

For the past decades spaceflight has been a driver for technology development in various fields, e.g. generation of electrical power, and computers. Human spaceflight missions, require resources typically scarce (e.g. oxygen) and are usually transferred along with the crew to the respective mission target. Future long-term missions aim beyond Low Earth Orbit (i.e. Moon and Mars), necessitating advances especially in closed-loop life-support systems to guarantee mission autonomy. This requires careful handling of the resources, i.e. minimizing waste and where possible harvesting resources in situ. Similarly, on Earth a sustainable way of life requires careful handling of resources. This paper discusses how both pathways relate to each other and how “settling” Earth sustainably and settling in any space location do not differ in their basic paradigms. It is shown how spaceflight has had an impact on sustainability in the past, which technologies are developed for human spaceflight and how they can be applied on Earth to improve sustainability. Finally, a research infrastructure is presented, which can conduct research on closed-loop technologies, immediately benefiting space and terrestrial applications. This incubator is divided into separate functional modules, which allow testing of technology components. These components can be exchanged to test various permutations of technologies. It is recommended to exploit synergy effects between activities concerning human spaceflight and sustainability by intertwining and coordinating these actions. The technological improvement driven by spaceflight programs can be used to drive sustainability as well.

Raumfahrt und Raumfahrtanwendungen spielen eine immer grosere Rolle, insbesondere die Satellitennavigation und -kommunikation. Gleichzeitig ist die Erforschung des Sonnensystems und des Weltalls noch immer ein zentraler Inhalt aktueller Raumfahrtprogramme. Fur jede Raumfahrtmission braucht man ausfuhrliche Bahnberechnungen, z.B. um Kontaktzeiten mit Bodenstationen zu bestimmen oder um Treibstoffbedarfe fur Manover zu berechnen. Dieses Buch beleuchtet diese Orbitmechanik auf Basis des Zweikorperproblems und baut darauf dann das Mehrkorperproblem, also die Berucksichtigung mehrerer wirkender Gravitationskrafte, auf. Mit anschaulichen Beispielen wird die Anwendung vertieft, um dem Leser zu ermoglichen, Machbarkeitsanalysen und erste Abschatzungen durchzufuhren. Fur weitergehende Berechnungen werden Hinweise geliefert und Rechenverfahren vorgestellt, die typischerweise mittels Computern durchgefuhrt werden. Das Buch richtet sich an Studierende, Anwender in der Raumfahrt und interessierte Laien.

No AccessGrundlagen der OrbitmechanikOct 2021Nicht-gravitative Störungen und Einfluss der SatellitenlageVolker Maiwald, Dominik Quantius, Benny RieversVolker Maiwald, Dominik Quantius, Benny Rievershttps://doi.org/10.3139/9783446470521.012SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to FavoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsCopy LTI LinkPDF key 'share (en)' returned an object instead of string.FacebookTwitterEmailLinkedIn previous chapternext chapter FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails 2021Pages: 203-228Print ISBN: 978-3-446-47027-9eISBN: 978-3-446-47052-1 Copyright & Permissions© 2021 Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Co. KGPDF downloadLoading ...

No AccessGrundlagen der OrbitmechanikNov 2019Niedrigschub: die Besonderen BahnenVolker Maiwald, Dominik Quantius, Benny RieversVolker Maiwald, Dominik Quantius, Benny Rievershttps://doi.org/10.3139/9783446462793.011SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to FavoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsCopy LTI LinkPDF key 'share (en)' returned an object instead of string.FacebookTwitterEmailLinkedIn previous chapternext chapter FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails 2019Pages: 187-200Print ISBN: 978-3-446-46219-9eISBN: 978-3-446-46279-3 Copyright & Permissions© 2020 Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Co. KGPDF downloadLoading ...

No AccessGrundlagen der OrbitmechanikNov 2019Gravitationspotential und GravitationskraftVolker Maiwald, Dominik Quantius, Benny RieversVolker Maiwald, Dominik Quantius, Benny Rievershttps://doi.org/10.3139/9783446462793.005SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to FavoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsCopy LTI LinkPDF key 'share (en)' returned an object instead of string.FacebookTwitterEmailLinkedIn previous chapternext chapter FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails 2019Pages: 49-56Print ISBN: 978-3-446-46219-9eISBN: 978-3-446-46279-3 Copyright & Permissions© 2020 Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Co. KGPDF downloadLoading ...

No AccessGrundlagen der OrbitmechanikNov 2019Reale BahnenVolker Maiwald, Dominik Quantius, Benny RieversVolker Maiwald, Dominik Quantius, Benny Rievershttps://doi.org/10.3139/9783446462793.010SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to FavoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsCopy LTI LinkPDF key 'share (en)' returned an object instead of string.FacebookTwitterEmailLinkedIn previous chapternext chapter FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails 2019Pages: 165-186Print ISBN: 978-3-446-46219-9eISBN: 978-3-446-46279-3 Copyright & Permissions© 2020 Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Co. KGPDF downloadLoading ...

The future of human space exploration is aimed at long-term missions to Moon and Mars. Currently, plans are elaborated by NASA, ESA, CNSA and others for a return to the lunar environment within the next decade as an intermediate step towards the goal of reaching the surface of Mars. For sustenance and crew comfort the crew of such long-duration missions should be provided with fresh food on the lunar or Martian surface. Due to the associated power demand, the required resources and technological complexity, this is a major challenge for this kind of missions. To continuously provide fresh food without the need for cargo transfer from Earth towards Moon or Mars an on-site greenhouse system is required, producing the fresh food in situ. The associated effort and cost for all resources to be transported to the base of operation prohibit any waste of resources, requiring a system operating in a (nearly) closed loop. Developing and validating a prototype for an effective and efficient greenhouse, labeled future exploration greenhouse (FEG) for space exploration has been the goal of the EDEN ISS project, funded by the EU, in the past 4 years. This paper shows the results of a design elaboration of the FEG into a greenhouse for planetary deployment on Moon or Mars. Guided by lessons learned from operating the FEG in Antarctica for one year and based on assumptions concerning the mission scenario, e.g. assuming an existing base infrastructure on-site, the presented design incorporates a plant growth area which is more than a factor of two larger than the prototype. The total mass of the cylindrical system, including equipment required during launch, transfer and landing, is about 19 mT, fitting into a Falcon 9 launcher. The versatile design is compatible with a wide variety of mission scenarios, e.g. ESA's Moon Village, and currently public mission plans.

No AccessGrundlagen der OrbitmechanikNov 2019Bahnarten und BodenspurenVolker Maiwald, Dominik Quantius, Benny RieversVolker Maiwald, Dominik Quantius, Benny Rievershttps://doi.org/10.3139/9783446462793.008SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to FavoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsCopy LTI LinkPDF key 'share (en)' returned an object instead of string.FacebookTwitterEmailLinkedIn previous chapternext chapter FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails 2019Pages: 135-144Print ISBN: 978-3-446-46219-9eISBN: 978-3-446-46279-3 Copyright & Permissions© 2020 Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Co. KGPDF downloadLoading ...

It’s mid-term realization plus global strategic investments: the results of the European Russian DEMOCRITOS project (Horizon 2020) related to the MW class INPPS (International Nuclear Power and Propulsion System) flagship will be described. INPPS flagship includes high power electric thrusters cluster, supplied electric power by the nuclear reactor (successfully tested in Russia) and a solar power ring. Two INPPS versions were studied – the wide and arrow wing versions. Both versions have a futuristic design with standardized interfaces for several flagship subsystems. Especially the high payload mass of INPPS allows the transport of – for example – up to 12 t to JUPITER moon EUROPA and about 18 t to MARS – as a function of specific impulse of electric thrusters. INPPS flagship not only allows scientific, but especially commercial and communication payloads as well. This means industrial-scale production of space flight systems for robotic and human space exploration. International cooperation related to INPPS realization are necessary within an International High Power Space Transportation program to realize the DEMOCRITOS core, ground and space components until 2025. DEMOCRITOS project included partners from Europe, Russia and a Brazilian guest observer and received several inputs from NASA Cleveland and JAXA Tokyo.

This paper describes the results of the European-Russian DEMOCRITOS and MEGAHIT projects related to the electric thrusters on board the International Nuclear Power and Propulsion System (INPPS) flagship. INPPS flagship is a high power space transportation hybrid tug (power supply primary by nuclear power, by auxiliary solar power ring and chemical propulsion due to subsystems transport for assembly at high Earth orbit above 800 km) for Mars, Europa, Moon and asteroid exploration flights. In dependence from the actual exploration mission, mission phases, trajectory, and preferred international high power electric thrusters (about 20 - 50 kW) with different specific impulse, the results will be discussed in detail - also as a function of the transportable payload mass. Because of the 1 MWe nuclear reactor (successful ground based test confirmed by Russia in 2018) as the power supply for INPPS a cluster of about 15 or more electric thrusters were studied in the DEMOCRITOS project for MARS and EUROPA INPPS flagships. Issues related to power processing units for the electric thrusters were identified and will be discussed. In addition, low power (kW) electric thrusters for an INPPS flagship co-flying small inspection satellite are sketched too. Insofar the presentation is directly highlighting aspects of disruptive electric propulsion subsystems, within the INPPS space system and applied to visionary Mars (including non-human and human) and Europa exploration and space transport tug flights.