LOOP: Preparing the foundations of circular on-orbit economy through a commercial refurbishment mission of a spacecraft in GEO

The Team evaluated a mission concept to robotically refurbish a GEO satellite by replacing a component of the Electric Propulsion subsystem. The Team performed a case-study to evaluate the suitability of existing propulsion systems for refurbishment. Further, they created a set of circular economy system maps to envisage what the future in-orbit circular economy would look like, and identified a business case that supports refurbishment based on purely commercial value. It has been concluded that for refurbishment to be feasible, new satellite platforms need to be designed that support robotic servicing, and that further work needs to understand the impact of design choices on the circular economy.