SLICE: Space Launch Impact on Climate and Environment 

SLICE investigates the environmental and climate impacts of space launch systems, advancing research on emissions, atmospheric interactions and sustainable design. The project delivers essential insights to support European policies and trains a new generation of researchers to shape a more sustainable future for space transportation.

Space utilisation plays a crucial role in understanding climate change, but due to a drastic increase in launch rates, there is an urgent need to understand and mitigate potential environmental impacts of space activities themselves, particularly of launchers. However, large knowledge gaps persist for their operational phase from lift-off to landing/reentry. Here, the largest Global Warming Potential and Ozone Layer Depletion Potential are expected. Especially in the higher atmospheric layers, which are only accessed by launchers, potential impacts of emitted pollutants are amplified by very long retention periods and substance accumulation effects. To investigate the Space Launch Impact on Climate and Environment, SLICE will therefore develop a research and training programme that bridges the current divide between space engineering and climate science to close the gaps that exist in the Life-Cycle Analysis of space launch systems.

Thus, SLICE will contribute to advance the science of climate change by investigating the three most pressing research areas of this field: Launch Vehicle Emissions, Atmospheric Interaction & Climate Impact and System Analysis & Design. This will generate actionable insights, on which SLICE will develop solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, accelerate the delivery of the Green Deal and establish an environmentally sustainable access to space. It’s the ambition of SLICE to generate desperately needed novel results, which will enable cutting-edge innovations. At the same time, SLICE is committed to training a new generation of highly skilled, resilient, and environmentally aware researchers. They will combine deep scientific knowledge with an ecodesign mindset and the ability to communicate across disciplines and sectors. These doctoral candidates will be uniquely prepared to shape a sustainable future for space transportation in Europe – technically, environmentally, and politically. SLICE directly supports the European Green Deal, ESA’s Agenda 2025, and will deliver crucial inputs for the EU Space Law and Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) regulations at European level, including the development of PEF Category Rules (PEFCR) for space.

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101227592

AMBITION

Our Mission and Objectives 

The overarching objective of SLICE is to support the EU’s commitment to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Therefore, SLICE will contribute to advance the science of climate change by investigating the impact of space launches on the atmosphere and thus, the climate. This will generate actionable insights, on which SLICE will develop solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the delivery of the Green Deal and establish an environmentally sustainable access to space. Detailed analysis of the involved challenges revealed the most pressing issues that are represented by the following specific sub-objectives of SLICE:

1. A database of emissions of launchers during the operational phase from lift-off to landing/re-entry, using synergetic and complementary experimental and numerical approaches in WP2.
2. Tools developed to assess the interaction between the emitted pollutants and the surrounding atmosphere and the resulting climate impact (WP3) based on various market development trajectories (WP4).
3. Methodologies to implement environmental considerations in early phases of launcher system design while ensuring compatibility with the full LCA of launchers to consider all development phases (WP4).
4. 18 creative, entrepreneurial, innovative & resilient PhDs via an international, inter-sectoral and multi/ inter-disciplinary training (WP5), able to generate economic and social benefit in face of current and future challenges.
5. Concrete actionable recommendations for stakeholders to minimise the environmental and climate impact, especially targeting launch service providers and the industrial supply chain as well as policy makers (WP6).