core/src/main/java/io/fabric8/maven/core/model/GroupArtifactVersion.java
public String getSanitizedArtifactId() {
        if (this.artifactId != null && !this.artifactId.isEmpty() && Character.isDigit(this.artifactId.charAt(0))) {
            return PREFIX + this.artifactId;
        }

        return this.artifactId;
    }
public String getSanitizedArtifactId() {
        if (this.artifactId != null && !this.artifactId.isEmpty() && Character.isDigit(this.artifactId.charAt(0))) {
            return PREFIX + this.artifactId;
        }

        return this.artifactId;
    }
ArtifactId is used for setting a resource name (service, pod,...) in Kubernetes resource.
The problem is that a Kubernetes resource name must start by a char.
This method returns a valid string to be used as Kubernetes name.
@return Sanitized Kubernetes name.