Evaluating the environmental impact of space missions

The sustainability of the space around the Earth and the impact that missions have on the space environment is becoming an increasingly important issue in the space sector. Several risk metrics have been developed in recent years to assess both the impact of missions on the space environment and its current status, particularly focusing on the debris population. Each of these metrics aims to capture the main influencing factors, investigating already orbiting objects or possible future missions. This work describes the developed space debris index, which is defined as a risk indicator following the formulation of the Environmental Consequences of Orbital Breakups (ECOB) index. Further development became necessary mainly due to a change in the population orbiting the Earth. The introduction of a large constellation led to a rapid increase in the number of objects, while also highlighting some critical aspects and limitations of the original formulation.