Internship in environmental performance and eco-design

MaiaSpace is a European space tech company, designing, manufacturing and operating competitive and sustainable solutions for space mobility. We are driven by the belief that access to space is a major enabler for a better and more sustainable life on Earth, addressing the challenges faced by humanity: climate, resources, connectivity, and data. Our aim is to successfully design and test a cost-effective and reusable mini-launch vehicle by 2026.

Ecology and the fight against environmental destruction are an integral part of the culture and core values of MaiaSpace. Our ambitions include pioneering the evaluation and mitigation of a launcher’s environmental impacts via two major objectives:

• To develop the mini-launcher with the lowest impact on the Earth's environment.

• To maximize positive impact on the orbital environment through in-orbit services.

To achieve these objectives, our initial overarching design choices for the launcher prioritize environmental mitigation by:

• Opting for LOX/methane to reduce black carbon emissions during launch compared to kerosene.

• Using biomethane to reduce carbon emissions of the propellant during production phase.

• Introducing reusability of the lower stage to significantly diminish resource depletion.

Since Day 1, MaiaSpace has conducted a thorough Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impact of its product throughout its lifecycle. Environmental performance is considered in design trade-off analyses, further propelling efforts to reduce environmental impacts compared to the defined targets. Our environmental strategy includes not only internal environmental impacts but also the management of vulnerability to environmental degradation, and the global context of energy and raw materials. In addition, recognizing gaps in the LCA methodology for space, MaiaSpace has developed proprietary methods for key aspects like reusability management and high-altitude impacts approximation during launch.

More specifically, our LCA model allows us to assess the environmental impact of MaiaSpace’s product, tailored to our business plan to measure the absolute impact of our activities on an annual basis, per launcher, or relative to performance. At the same time, we regularly conduct new environmental analyses—whether through global trade-offs for the business plan, between design or operational choices, or between suppliers—to ensure our environmental efficiency.

Noticing the need to continuously update the launcher’s LCA and incorporate environmental criteria into most trade-offs, MaiaSpace has identified that creating a tool for simple eco-design could be an effective solution for the teams.

Internship description:

As an intern, you will join the "Industrialization" team, a transverse team dedicated to implementing best practices, infrastructures and tools to ensure the future production cadence of the launcher. You will work on environmental topics alongside the Environmental Performance Engineer, particularly in developing a robust eco-design tool to enable simplified LCAs. This tool will allow for comparing different solutions regarding the overall environmental impact of the launcher, considering the performance provided by each solution. You will have the opportunity to test your tool on both existing trade-offs and new ones.