| dc.description.abstract | Both NASA and ESA have committed to establishing a lasting presence on the Moon by 2030. However, lunar surface debris has already exceeded 200,000 kg, prompting concerns about the environmental, operational, and economic viability of future missions. This thesis proposes that circular economy principles—particularly reusability, modularity, and interoperability—must be embedded in early mission architecture to reduce waste, improve system longevity. To evaluate these goals, this thesis introduced a novel decision-support framework, the Lunar Exploration Impact Assessment (LEIA), alongside a policy-informed set of Lunar Surface Sustainability Guidelines (LSSG). Both decision support tools were designed help mission designers and space policy stakeholders to incentivize the design of resilient reusable lunar landers and rovers. In this thesis the LEIA framework, was applied to two case studies: NASA JPL’s EnduranceA autonomous lunar sample return rover, and ESA’s multi purpose Argonaut lander to evaluate the sustainability of each spacecraft after the EOL/M phase of each mission. Scores were computed using a Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) approach. Seven Impact Assessment Indicators (IAI)s were considered, to assign a sustainability rating for each mission: Cost-effectiveness, environmental impact, science value, redundancy, resilience, strategic value, and technological feasibility. The Endurance-A mission achieved a sustainability score of 66.4%, based on a sample collection post primary mission scenario, indicating moderate sustainability across some categories such as cost-effectiveness 18.9% and technological feasibility 12%. However, the environmental impact score was limited to 7.7%, due to the out-gassing and launch emissions associated with the SpaceX Starship lander. The rovers redundancy and maintainability ratings also constrained the overall sustainability rating – highlighting a gap in the availability of tools suitable for EVA-based repairs on the lunar surface. Subsystems most at risk of degradation—mobility, thermal, and power—require enhanced design for long-term reuse scenarios. Each of these factors were made salient through the Argonaut case study, indicating that in the short to medium term in order to prevent the accumulation of lunar surface debris lunar rovers and landers must be designed to be more resilient to the conditions of the lunar environment. To supplement the LEIA framework, a set of policy recommendations were developed in order to address the lack of End of Life (EOL) procedures in place to manage lunar surface debris – in the form of retired lunar missions. The guidelines detailed how economic policy mechanisms adopted in circular economy systems could be leveraged to incentivize the design of sustainable lunar surface missions and operations. | |
