The Clean Space Industry Days (CSID) became an inescapable meeting for the European space industry working on designing cleaner missions.

The next edition will be from March 30^th to April 3^rd, 2020 at ESTEC, the ESA technological centre in the Netherlands.

From Monday lunch time to Friday, the participants will join sessions covering topics ranging from evaluating the environmental impacts of a space mission to designing spacecraft compliant with the ‘Space Debris Mitigation’ requirements.

ESA’s objective is to keep its global leadership role in the field of eco-design for space missions and tackling space debris to boost the European space actors ‘s competitiveness in those fields.

Clean Space contributes to ESA’s goal to “ensure European autonomy in accessing and using space in a safe and secure environment” by tackling the challenge of space debris. This initiative is bringing solutions to the critical issue of space debris.

One reason for this is that the cost of no action to address the space debris issues is estimated to €1.5billion for the European space industry over the next 20 years. The loss is projected to grow x5.7 in 200 years.

At the same time, the SDM technology market is estimated at €300 million per year, and the ADR/IOS market should reach by 2036 €2.5-5billion.

The next CSID edition will cover the following topics:

    – Ecodesign: embedding environmental sustainability within space mission design

    – Space debris mitigation: developing technologies to prevent the creation of future debris

    – IOS/ADR: enabling the first active debris removal mission as the cornerstone for a vital new business providing in-orbit servicing such as repairing, refuelling or even recycling

    – Close Proximity Operations

    – Design for Removal

  – On-Orbit Manufacturing, Assembly and Recycle (OMAR)

Ecodesign for Space

The Clean Space initiative started now almost 10 years ago when an ESA team was asked to investigate the environmental impacts of a spacecraft. This led to the creation of an environmental LCA (life-cycle assessment) method applicable to space missions and a guideline for its use. Applying LCA to a space mission is indeed still today way more complex than to any existing sector.

After having the results of your LCA study, you must carry on with reducing the environmental impacts of your missions. This topic is known as EcoDesign for space missions. Its objective is to use new materials and manufacturing processes and design which will have a lower environmental impact on Earth – and in the meantime, that will be compliant with European environmental legislations such as REACH.

It is no surprise that both environmental LCA and ecodesign for space missions are of high interest to European space actors. We indeed live in the region which is the most active in fighting the climate change.

Space Debris Mitigation technologies – or the CleanSat project

The CleanSat project aims at minimising the production of space debris and support the European space industry to comply with the Space Debris Mitigation existing and upcoming legislations.

Design for Demise will be a prominent topic during the CSID. A lot is happening in Europe regarding the development of new technologies that will demise during re-entry, and these advancements will be discussed during sessions focusing on diverse technologies/materials.

Other topics will be covered within the CleanSat sessions such as post-mission disposal, passivation, and even a managing the end-of-life of small satellites and cubesats.

On-Orbit Servicing and Debris Removal

In 2019, ESA challenged the European space industry to come up with a service to remove one or more ESA object(s) whilst also demonstrating in-orbit functionalities required for future on-orbit services that industry foresees based on the market need. By acting as pioneers on the first debris removal service, European industry will have first mover advantage towards new potential markets within on-orbit servicing.

Such a mission is technically demanding, and as such the Clean Space Industrial Days is an opportunity to get to up-to-date on the latest technology developments in the areas of:

    – rendezvous (sensors and controllers)

    – capture (strategies and technologies)

Close-Proximity Operations

Activities carried out to develop technologies for approaching, grasping and manipulating spacecraft on orbit helped identified knowledge gaps of major importance for rendezvous and capture.

These gaps mean that there is a particular lack of technical requirements and verification methods for ensuring that rendezvous and proximity operations are conducted in a sustainable manner.

A workshop on ‘Close Proximity Operations’ aims at triggering discussions with the European space actors to define requirements and guidelines to ensure safe rendezvous and capture operations.

Design for Removal

It is also an opportunity to get an update on the technology developments designed for satellites that will be launched in the future which will simplify the rendezvous and capture process in the event a satellite is unable to perform the disposal / end-of-life manoeuvres. Therefore, a specific session on Design for Removal will cover:

    – rendezvous supports

    – standardised capture interfaces

    – detumbling techniques for non-operational satellites

    – Design for Removal for Earth Observation satellites

    – Design for Removal for megaconstellations

On-Orbit Manufacturing, Assembly and Recycle (OMAR)

For decades we assumed that on-orbit assembly and recycling was a concept too futuristic. Some kind of Science Fiction. Today ESA decided to seriously these subjects. Indeed, they could change the way space systems will be designed and operated in the future.

In 2019 ESA invited the industry to explore these concepts and to come up with proposals. The results of these studies should gather some fascinating discussions among space actors. 

Thus, this session will cover the system aspects and technology developments needed for future services (in Earth orbits) such as:

    – Manufacturing

    – Refurbishing

    – Assembling

    – Recycling

    – Refuelling

We invite you to register online as soon as possible on the event webpage as the number of seats is limited.

If you have any question, feel free to email us: cleanspace@esa.int.