ESA-funded ACT sustainability tool reaches commercial use

ACT, a life-cycle assessment tool for space hardware and missions, is commercialised, maintained and being improved. The effort is funded by the European Space Agency, with the EPFL Space Center as consortium lead. EcoDeltaV, a spinoff company, markets the tool and uses it for consultancy services.

ACT is funded by the European Space Agency, and the EPFL Space Center is the consortium lead.

ACT presents sustainability as a key metric and can be used from early design stages and later in a project's lifetime.

The tool produces assessments for space hardware, spacecraft, launchers, ground stations and entire missions, with environmental impact considered from the start.

ACT incorporates EU REACH guidelines and gives expert advice on ESA's life-cycle assessment guidelines for space systems.

ISAE-SUPAERO contributed launch-profile knowledge, while the Institute of Space Systems supplied expertise on launch and reentry emissions by altitude layer.

The Paul Scherrer Institute strengthened the tool's scientific basis, Ways Ehead provided market research and legislative advice, and Ateleris turned expertise into ACT software development.

EcoDeltaV, a spinoff company, markets and improves ACT, considers intellectual property and security, offers it as software-as-a-service and uses it internally for consultancy.

Life-cycle assessment is the most-used methodology; it examines the whole life from cradle to grave and quantifies environmental impact.

For lunar-industry watchers, ACT shows how sustainability can be measured from the beginning of a mission and applied across hardware, launchers, ground stations and full missions. Its inclusion of EU REACH guidelines connects the tool to environmental rules on Earth.

ESA is described as playing a vital role in safe and sustainable space activities and reducing environmental effects on Earth, in Earth orbit, at the Moon and in deep space. ESA also originated the idea for a life-cycle tool aimed at future launchers and spacecraft, making ACT relevant to lunar and deep-space operations.