Value chain · CLM-0835
In plain terms
In a 2022 study, the research team compared its estimated carbon footprint per unit of electricity for a planned UK Space Energy Initiative programme, modelled on CASSIOPeiA satellites as an example design, with its own earlier assessment of the old NASA/DOE satellite design, made with the same calculation tool, which came out about five times higher, and said the newer design's much lower estimate was mainly because it needs far less steel, aluminium and concrete for its receiving antennas and can be built without astronauts.
The claim as recorded
SRC-016 states that its 23.6 gCO2e/kWh CASSIOPeiA roadmap figure "compares to the 112.3 gCO2e/kWh carbon footprint of the silicon option of the NASA/DOE Reference System and 122.6 gCO2e/kWh for the gallium arsenide option based on the same methodology and calculation tool", and attributes the roughly fivefold difference to "the modernisation of the design", specifically "the reduced volumes of steel, aluminium and concrete required for the rectenna, and the hyper-modular and autonomous assembly of the CASSIOPeiA concept, eliminating the need for humans to be stationed in space".
Evidence behind this: The 23.6 gCO2e/kWh figure is SRC-016's own computed output at T2. The 112.3 and 122.6 gCO2e/kWh comparators are not recomputed inside SRC-016; they come from its reference [9], SRC-212 (Wilson, Vasile, Oqab and Dietrich, IAC 2020, T5), which prints 112.27 and 122.63 gCO2e/kWh (p12, as CLM-0810 records), so that half carries SRC-212's provenance.
Scope and limits
This compares two computed LCA outputs. It does NOT establish that the two studies shared identical system boundaries beyond the authors' own statement "same methodology and calculation tool"; SRC-016 gives no boundary-by-boundary comparison. The attribution of the gap to design modernisation is the authors' own explanation, not a decomposition supported by published workings. SRC-016 never dates the NASA/DOE Reference System as 1979; it describes that system only as "extremely large, bulky and outdated spacecraft typical of 1960s/1970s architecture" (p.2), so the year must not be imported into any claim citing this source. SRC-016 names its tool, the Strathclyde Space Systems Database (p.4), but no version; SRC-009 (2024, printed p.4) gives version 1.0.1 for the 2020 study, so whether the two runs used the same database version is not stated; SRC-009 itself used version 1.0.4_beta for a different model (printed p.7), and no held document re-runs either study on a later version.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
p.16 (PDF p.15), s6: "Over the lifetime of the programme, the total carbon footprint has been calculated to be 23.6 gCO2e/kWh"; the comparison and its attribution, quoted in claim, are the next three sentences on the same page.
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-008 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0835
CLM-0835, Energy Aperture, as of 2022.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-016
- CLM-0184This study's headline carbon-per-kWh figure for a UK space solar power programme leaves out the possible climate effect of soot and...CLM-0185In a 2022 life-cycle study commissioned by the UK Space Energy Initiative, the lightweight CASSIOPeiA design it used as an example for the...CLM-0832A UK-commissioned study modelled the whole planned 2022-2080 fleet of space solar power satellites and found that, spread across all the...CLM-0833This 2022 life-cycle study spells out exactly what it counted: the UK Space Energy Initiative's whole 2022-2080 roadmap, from early...CLM-0834The authors say their model does not count the soot and aluminium oxide that rockets release into the upper atmosphere, because the science...CLM-0836A 2022 life-cycle study set its estimate of 23.6 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour for the UK Space Energy Initiative's...CLM-0837Although the study's headline number is about carbon, its own results show ozone damage is the far bigger relative problem, at about 32 per...CLM-0838The authors of a 2022 life-cycle study of the UK Space Energy Initiative's planned space solar power programme said that, if the whole...More on the source page.