Integrating Scenario-Based Life Cycle Assessment into Model-Based Systems Engineering for Space Exploration Systems Design
Giacomo LUCCISANO, Fabrizio BORGNA, Roberta FUSARO, Nicole VIOLA
Abstract. Ambitions for sustained human presence beyond Earth are accelerating, while environmental accountability and long development timelines expose limits of document-centric systems engineering approach. Crewed mission architectures integrate propulsion, communications, life support, and habitats under tight safety, performance, and sustainability constraints; decisions propagate across technologies and phases, and their impacts unfold over space and time under uncertainty. Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) can manage architectural complexity, but it rarely embeds life cycle sustainability reasoning with sufficient fidelity or timeliness. This paper introduces the concept of a framework that unifies MBSE and Scenario-Based Life Cycle Assessment (SB-LCA) to perform continuous, traceable, time- and location-aware sustainability evaluation as systems’ designs evolve. The framework consists of two layers: (i) a process-based LCA that quantifies the environmental impact of technologies to drive architecture trades; (ii) a transportation layer that selects payload-feasible launcher classes and partitions their footprint into static (manufacture, propellants, end-of-life) and variable (trajectory-resolved operations) contributions. Within this second layer, mission analysis couples emissions and atmospheric-response models to generate a geo-referenced inventory. Hetero-functional graphs capture interdependencies and enable reuse of SB-LCA modules across phases. The proposed approach is envisioned to identify dominant drivers, quantify sensitivities to payload growth, vehicle choice, and trajectory design, and iteratively guide lower-impact configurations – providing measurable environmental targets for responsible human space exploration.
Keywords
Model-Based Systems Engineering, Life Cycle Assessment, Space Exploration Systems, Space Mission Design, Modeling & Simulation
Published online 7/20/2026, 6 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Giacomo LUCCISANO, Fabrizio BORGNA, Roberta FUSARO, Nicole VIOLA, Integrating Scenario-Based Life Cycle Assessment into Model-Based Systems Engineering for Space Exploration Systems Design, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 69, pp 1512-1517, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904251-265
The article was published as article 265 of the book CEAS – AIDAA Conference 2025
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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