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DECEMBER 2020
20... 21… lift off 2020 paived the way for a new season in the Space Age, 2021 could now make it our future
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e entered the third decade of the third millennium and, probably, we did it by breathing a sigh of relief. The year we left behind, 2020, was an annus horribilis and history will most likely regard it as such. However, 2020 will most likely consigned to history also as a turning point year for humanity. Moreover, in the evolution of our planet and, then, our species, there are few circumstances which show how we can often emerge “stronger than before” from a crisis. This is the concept of the phoenix, the firebird that resurrected from the ashes of its own decadence, which burst into flames. A cathartic process which gave youth to this fantastic bird and, with it, the strength to restart. With more awareness, according to us. Indeed, 2020 showed to a humanity which was perhaps too confident in its own skills the transience of things, put it in front of its weaknesses, made some latent fears concrete, and forced it to reflect. Therefore, 2020 will be remembered as the year where the words synergy, shared commitment, collaboration were the most visible in a hypothetic sphere of words. Industry, economy, science, politics have remodulated their own strategies, by starting processes to review their choices and marking the needs of humanity as priority, not only to face the emergency caused by the pandemic, but also with an eye to the future. Environmental sustainability, green economy, blue economy, space economy are the paradigms of a possible future, made such by the weakness shown before nature. Because the pandemic is the result of a natural action, which may be the response of nature to the poor respect our species has shown towards the planet where it originated and lives. Respect for the environment, decarbonization, environmental sustainability of development are terms which, today, are finally essential to guarantee a future for mankind, both on this planet and on other celestial bodies. And if 2020 can be regarded as a terrible year for humanity, it will however be
THE EDITORIAL
THE PHOENIX OF THE SPACE ERA by Francesco Rea @francescorea
«2020 will be consigned to history as a turning point year for humanity»
regarded as the first year (or one of the first years) of a new era, the space era. In 2020, humanity celebrated the twenty years of its new home, the ISS; the return to human flight from the U.S. soil with the Crew Dragon; the year which established the new border of humanity on the Moon; the year where commercial space has become a plan’s built reality; the year where the highest number of rockets in the history of humanity, up to four per day, rose up in the sky. The year of the space phoenix, of a new reality which has fully developed from the ashes of a humanity worn out by its own cultural, neither scientific nor technological, limits. The year of the rocket, whose propulsive flames may have boosted a new, reborn humanity.
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UMMARY
N.25 - DECEMBER 2020
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“The editorial” BY FRANCESCO REA
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“China’s long march in space” BY MANUELA PROIETTI
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“Asteroids on a watch list” BY GIULIA BONELLI
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“Martian robots of the future” BY GIULIA BONELLI
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“An oxygen factory for the Moon and Mars” BY EDITORIAL STAFF
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“Cira, the aerospace conjugated in the future tense” BY EDITORIAL STAFF
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“Questions to the sky” BY PAOLO DI REDA
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”The influence of climate changes on the Arctic fauna” BY FRANCESCA CHERUBINI
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“Sentinel-6, guardian of the climate” BY SIMONE COLLINI
TESTATA GIORNALISTICA GRUPPO GLOBALIST
Reg. Tribunale Roma 11.2017 del 02.02.2017 Stampato presso Tipografia Tiburtini Via delle Case Rosse 23, 00131 Roma RM 4 - global science
“Experience and technology for climate” BY EDITORIAL STAFF
editorial director Francesco Rea managing director Gianni Cipriani graphics project Paola Gaviraghi graphics Davide Coero Borga
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“Innovation and technology for invisible infrastructures” BY EDITORIAL STAFF
editorial coordination Manuela Proietti editorial office Asi - Globalist www.asi.it - globalscience.it advertising Paola Nardella adv.globalscience@gmail.com
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CHANG’E-5 COLLECTS A PIECE OF MOON
China’s long march in space by Manuela Proietti @unamanus
«Chang’e-5 missioninvolves a lander, an ascender and an orbiter, successfully completed the first Chinese rendezvous in Moon orbit»
Now we can consider it as a certainty: Moon is the target of the human exploration of the 20s-30s. USA and China are among the favorites to compete for this target, with different times and in different ways. For the time being, there is no official perspective of a cooperation between these two countries. On the one hand, we have the NASA and its well-structured Artemis programme, which involves assembling a station in Moon orbit, landing the next man and the first woman in 2024 and building a base camp for governmental and commercial purposes On the other hand, we have China, which has chosen the way of robotic exploration with the collection of samples – a way which seems to preclude to mining exploitation – with the building, in the 30s, of an international research station and hopes to have Europe and Russia as partners in this project. If on the one hand, the U.S. agency has structured the program in the last few months by signing a set of international cooperation agreements, which see Italy high up on the list of contributors, on the other hand it is facing the first uncertainties: a budget cut for the 2024 lander and the possible changes of direction related to the future space policy of the Biden administration. On the other hand, Beijing is already stepping out on the court and is moving with great strides in its long march towards space, in which Moon already seems to be a milestone, even if it’s not the only one. Following the success, in 2019, of the Chang’è 4 mission which, with the Yutu 2 rover, saw the first landing ever on the hidden side of the Moon, Bejing has reached a new, historical goal. On December 5th, the Chang’e-5 mission, which involves a lander, an ascender and an orbiter, successfully completed the first Chinese rendezvous in Moon orbit. The last (and so far only) orbital dockings around our satellite date back to the Apollo missions, which lead the moonwalkers back to the shuttles, once they had completed their short “raids” on the Moon’s soil. The mission, landed last December 1st, has succeeded in its primary aim, as well as recording a set of spectacular images during descent and after landing: collecting a “piece” of Moon, a goal that had been “forgotten” for over 40 years: the last attempt to collect lunar material dated back to 1976, the year of the last Soviet mission, Luna. Through a drill, the Chang’è lander has collected up to two kg of lunar dust, which have been carried into orbit by a mini vehicle, called ascender. In a sort of space relay, the sample has been transferred aboard the orbiter, and from there it started its return journey towards Earth. The next Chinese lunar mission, Chang’è 6, which will also involve a sample return, is part of the fourth stage of the programme, dedicated to the study of lunar resources. Scheduled for 2024, it will descend to south pole of the Moon, where Beijing intends to start its plan to colonize our satellite.
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RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES
ASTEROIDS ON A WATCH LIST by Giulia Bonelli @giulia_bonelli
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From threat to our planet to precious study material: asteroids are among the most feared, and at the same time most fascinating, objects in the cosmos. Today, scientists can watch them closely, and even hold some fragments in their hands. This has been proven, recently, by the success of the Japanese Hayabusa 2 probe, which at the beginning of December sent to Earth samples of material from the Ryugu asteroid. An actual piece of the history of the Solar System, which travelled 340 million km before reaching us. The capsule containing the asteroid samples detached from the mothership about 12 hours before landing, depositing its precious load in the remote area of Woomera, Australia, where it was picked up by the Japanese team. But the adventure of the Japanese probe is not over yet: after travelling over 5 billion km since the start of its mission, Hayabusa 2 will continue to travel in the deep space towards the 1998 KY26 asteroid, which will be reached by 2031. In the meanwhile, our planet is waiting for another prey coming from the deep space. This time, it has been collected by the NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe: the star-spangled shuttle, which arrived in the orbit of the Bennu asteroid in December 2018 after two years and 101 days of travel, has studied from all possible angles this small celestial body, which is about 320 million km away from us and is hardly as high as a skyscraper. The precious samples of the Bennu asteroid are expected to arrive on Earth by 2023. This asteroid offers a unique scientific potential, provided by its past history and primordial composition. Indeed, Bennu is a sort of window to how our Solar System could look like billions of years ago, as it took shape and produced the ingredients that, one day, would help to seed life on Earth. As well as helping us to better understand our planet, studying asteroids also helps us to protect it. «The possibility to have samples of asteroid rocks in our terrestrial laboratories – says Ettore Perozzi, from the Office for Space Surveillance of the Italian Space Agency – is essential not only for its scientific implications, but also to assess the efficacy of the methods to protect the planet from any cosmic impacts. For example, thanks to the Dart, Hera and LiciaCube missions, which are in an advanced stage of deployment, the ASI will take part along with the NASA and the ESA in the first in-flight deflection experiment on a small asteroid». And here we get to the other side of the coin when we talk about asteroids, i.e. the potential danger for our planet. We are still talking about very low risks which, translated in numbers, correspond to 1 in 100.000. This means that the likelihood of an asteroid crossing the orbit of Earth at the same time as our planet is in transit is equal to 1 in 100.000. However, scientists can’t ignore that single possibility, because the potential consequences might be devastating. Hence the idea, on which several space agencies are working, to send a kamikaze probe to space, to impact with a potentially dangerous asteroid. Until a few years ago, it might have looked like science fiction to deviate a celestial object which was approaching our planet. Today, instead, we have the technologies to do so – and these technologies will soon be tested in the space laboratories of the LiciaCube project and
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Dart and Hera missions. This triple mission, which is scheduled for 2024, will study the Didymos binary asteroid from a short distance and will test for the first time the asteroid deflection method. “It’s a cosmic experiment, the first of its kind – highlights Perozzi – and Didymos is clearly not heading towards Earth. Furthermore, as they selected it as a candidate, scientists made sure that even in the case of failure of the mission there wouldn’t be any risk of an accidental deviation of the asteroid towards our planet». Should everything go as planned, Dart, Hera and LiciaCube will show the feasibility of the “space pool” which, by hitting an asteroid with a probe, will apply to it enough force to deviate its trajectory as desired. One day, this method might save our planet from a potential, actual impact. Speaking of which, one of the most talked-about objects in the last few years is the 99942 Apophis asteroid. Discovered in 2004, it belongs to the wide family of the near-Earth asteroids (Neo) and has a diameter of nearly 370 meters. «This size – explains Perozzi – corresponds to a potential, very large crater and to a continental damage. Because of this, Apophis has been kept under strict surveillance. The observations have shown that there will be a close encounter with Earth in 2029, but also that there definitely won’t be an impact. However, when an asteroid passes by the Earth, this doesn’t mean it can’t happen again: a scenario where orbits intersect is potentially dangerous not only today, but also in the future. Other dates when Apophis might pass by Earth have been calculated, and one of them is 2068”. In this case, too, we are talking about an extremely low likelihood of impact, but as of today we can’t rule it out completely. Because of this, the flyby of the asteroid in 2029 will be key, as it will allow astronomers to collect a large amount of information on this object and move well in advance, in the unlikely event we need to send a probe to deviate the asteroid and protect our planet.
«When an asteroid passes by the Earth, this doesn’t mean it can’t happen again»
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NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover completes its journey to Mars on February 18, 2021. Credits: NASA.
ROSALIND AND PERSEVERANCE
The 7 minutes which mark the final stage of the descent of a space shuttle on Mars are among the most feared in an entire space mission. As of today, only the United States were capable of successfully landing fully operational landers and rovers on the Martian soil and overcoming the difficult challenge of finding the deceleration point. This operation is even more delicate if we think that an automated descent system is in charge of everything, without any possibility of an in real-time intervention by the mission control. But landing on Mars is the main challenge, and not the only one. Once landed on the Martian surface, a rover must carry out a few complex operations before moving safely on the red soil. And the ESA, which aims at cooperating with the NASA by sending the first European rover, Rosalind Franklin, to Mars, is working on this. So called to pay tribute to the great scientist who discovered the DNA’s double helix, the European small robot is the flagship of the ESA’s Roscosmos Exomars mission, whose launch has been postponed to September 2022. Rosalind’s main target will be to look for signs of life on Mars by analyzing a set of samples, collected thanks to a drill manufactured in Italy which will penetrate up to 2 meters below the Martian surface. During these months, ExoMars’s team is working hard on all the stages scheduled for Rosalind during its adventure on the Red Planet, from the “7 minutes of terror” of the descent to the start of its scientific activity. Following the success, last November, of the first high-altitude
MARTIAN ROBOTS OF THE FUTURE by Giulia Bonelli @giulia_bonelli
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fall test of its parachutes, a milestone in preparation for landing, the European Space Agency has focused on the initial stages of Rosalind’s Martian cruise. The so-called ground tests, conducted on a copy of the small robot at the Rover Operations Control Centre (Rocc) in Turin, have all been successful. The European centre in the capital of the Piedmont region, opened in May 2019 by the ESA and the ASI with Thales Alenia Space and Altec, has hosted the dress rehearsal of the post-landing sequence, covering about 10 sols – the Martian day, equivalent to 24 hours and 37 minutes on Earth. Everything has gone as planned, from the deployment of the solar panels and Rosalind’s antenna, respectively in the first and third sol, to the positioning of wheels in the fourth sol and the unrolling of the telecommunication cable in the eight sol. Finally, in the tenth sol, the rover will be ready to descend the ramp and touch the Martian soil for the first time, starting the great European adventure on the Red Planet. The NASA, a veteran in the field of robotic exploration of Mars, is also working to prepare the Martian stay, and aims at breaking its own record by sending a next-generation rover, Perseverance, which is currently travelling towards the Red Planet and whose landing is scheduled for February 18, 2021, on the Jezero crater. Here is a great basin, which, according to the scientists, once held a Martian lake crossed by a river: the ideal place for the formation of ancient forms of life. Finding them will be the goal of Perseverance, the new champion of NASA’s Martian astrobiology. The rover, heir to Curiosity, is equipped with a full set of new scientific instruments. An Italian instrument, the ASI-Infn’s LaRA micro-reflector, is aboard too. Similar to the instrument located on the NASA’s InSight lander, LaRA will enable to add important pieces to the knowledge of the internal structure of the Red Planet. The advanced technology included in the U.S. rover also involves Moxie, an experimental tool to manufacture oxygen directly on the Red Planet. And as the ESA was testing Rosalind’s post-landing equipment at the Rocc centre, the NASA carried out a few tests on the future applications of Moxie in the laboratories of the Californian Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The model carried by Perseverance is an alpha model, whose only target is to test the engineering functionality of the Moxie system. The success of the test bodes well for a potential large-scale application of this technology, with the longterm goal of manufacturing enough oxygen to make the future human missions on Mars sustainable.
The Martian surface as seen by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (Hi-RISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credits: NASA.
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SPACE COLONIES
AN OXYGEN FACTORY FOR THE MOON AND MARS by Editorial Staff @ASI_spazio
Inside SOFIA, the NASA'S Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. Credits: NASA.
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Self-sufficient colonies on the Moon? It looks like this scenario, on which space agencies and companies have been working for a while, has been sped up. First, there was the extraordinary discovery, obtained thanks to the data of the NASA’s observatory SOFIA, of the large presence of water on the visible side of our satellite. Now another ingredient, equally essential for the future Moon settlers, is added to the precious liquid: oxygen. Not directly on the Moon, but to be manufactured on-site, by transforming a material that is very abundant on our satellite, regolith. This is the proposal set up by an international team, guided by Airbus, which has invented a system called ROXY, capable of transforming lunar dust into oxygen and metals. The European company AIRBUS, which has recently won the Industry Award at the 71st edition of the Iac, International Astronautical Congress, has been working for a while on designing technologies for lunar oxygen. Following two years of development, a test conducted in the laboratories of the German Fraunhofer, partner of the project, has finally shown the full potential of the system. ROXY is a small and compact system, easy to carry and quite cheap. Its main components are a robotic arm to collect regolith, a system for its processing, a reactor and a tank to store the produced oxygen. Most of the project happens in the reactor, which is in charge of extracting the precious oxygen molecules from regolith. Transforming lunar moon into oxygen, a method on which the European Space Agency is also working, opens the way to a big chain of possibilities for made on the Moon manufacturing. Speaking of which, the greatest allies will be ice and the deposits of water molecules that have just been discovered on the Moon’s surface. But the manufacturing of oxygen doesn’t just involve the colonization of the Moon, but also the colonization of Mars. The NASA, a veteran in the field of robotic exploration of Mars, is also working to prepare the stay on the Red Planet, and aims at breaking its own record by sending a next-generation rover, Perseverance, which is currently travelling towards the Red Planet and whose landing is scheduled for February 18, 2021. The advanced technology included in the U.S. rover also involves Moxie, an experimental tool to manufacture oxygen directly on the Red Planet. In the days when the ESA was testing Rosalind’s post-landing equipment at the Rover Operation Control Center in Turin, the NASA carried out a few tests on the future applications of Moxie in the laboratories of the Californian Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The model carried by Perseverance is an alpha model, whose only target is to test the engineering functionality of the Moxie system. The success of the test bodes well for a potential large-scale application of this technology, with the long-term goal of manufacturing enough oxygen to make the future human missions on Mars sustainable.
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Cira, the aerospace conjugated in the future tense by Editorial Staff @ASI_spazio
The shareholders’ meeting of the Italian Aerospace Research Centre (CIRA) unanimously approved, at its sitting of December 3rd, the 2019 final balance (94.55% of the share capital). The public partners, represented by the Italian Space Agency (controlling shareholder), by the Consortium for the Area of Industrial Development of Caserta and by the National Research Council (CNR), and the main industrial partners, Leonardo, Thales and Avio, attended the meeting. The year 2019 closed with a net profit of 5.2 million Euros and the production value has been attested to 47 million Euros, with a 15% growth compared to 2018. It is to emphasize a significant increase in “third party revenues”, i.e. those revenues coming from research contracts and testing services that the CIRA has acquired in the global market; furthermore, the 30% threshold of their incidence on total revenues has been crossed, with a net improvement of the results obtained in 2018. Also the big testing facilities, which characterize the CIRA, have had a strong positive impulse with the Plasma Wind Tunnel and the Icing Wind Tunnel, which have generated a 40% increase in turnover compared to the previous year. During the meeting, the President Giuseppe Morsillo underlined the important achievements, first and foremost the signing of the Interministerial Decree (DM 662/290) by the Ministry of Education, University and Research and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which marks the beginning of a new multiannual cycle made of strategic research and technological development projects and new testing laboratories and facilities which will contribute to give competitiveness and excellence to the national economic system. Such important result is reinforced by what is laid down by the Decree 744/20 for the distribution of the Ordinary fund for research institutes and bodies, which assigns 4 million euros per year to the CIRA starting from 2020, as a contribution for the management fees of the Centre. To make the Plan as adherent as possible to the new aerospace scenario and guarantee support to the whole sector, the strategic program-
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mes included in the new PRORA are the result of an intense debate with the main stakeholders. In summary, the CIRA’s new scientific and technological offer will involve important developments in the field of sustainable, resilient and safe air transport, advanced air mobility with autonomous and/or remotely-piloted aircrafts, access to and exploration of space, Earth observation (with a significant impact on the dual field) and suborbital and stratospheric flights.
SUSTAINABLE, RESILIENT AND SAFE AIR TRANSPORT
From above: the CIRA’s executive offices, Unmanned Space Vehicle, Plasma Wind Tunnel, Icing Wind Tunnel, VEGA interstage prototype, FLARE flying laboratory.
The aviation sector has started a process of deep renewal which is targeted, among other things, at reducing emissions by introducing new operational technologies and approaches, both on the ground and in-flight. Recent studies have shown that, due to the continuous growth of air traffic, the production of CO2 continues to increase despite the technological advances. Therefore, the European Commission has decided to promote the Green Deal programme, with a view to a progressive decarbonization. The CIRA has incorporated the need for such evolution, not only by including , among the primary objectives of the new PRORA, the development of technologies for air transport which can meet the increasingly urgent requirements of the Green Deal programme, but also by signing, along with research bodies from other 13 countries, an agreement which has led to the setting up of the ZEMA (Zero Emission Aviation) for the use of alternative energy sources, new propulsion systems and for an optimization of flight routes. Therefore, today the CIRA is deeply involved in the development of zero-emission, flight-enabling technologies and has undertaken the challenge of new configurations, designed and optimized for flight, with new electric propellers; among the different fields of research, there is also the use of hydrogen as a source of energy, by using both Fuel Cells and direct combustion. The Fuel Cells and the systems based on hydrogen are regarded as key technologies in the PRORA and, therefore, they are the target of several design challenges. We need to think that batteries have very low energy density values and present cooling problems and limitations in terms of reliability and service life. The energy contained in a kilo of the best batteries available on the market is about 50 times lower than the energy contained in a kilo of kerosene. Subsequently, the autonomy of the means of transportation based on electrical systems is very low compared to the autonomy of systems based on the combustion of fossil fuels. The Fuel Cells allow to transform chemical energy directly in electrical energy, but currently they can only be used by General Aviation aircrafts. Their use in commercial flights requires further technological developments and efforts, such as an onboard chamber for compressed hydrogen at very high pressure or in the liquid form. However, there are several challenges for the electric aircraft: from the development of high power density electrical devices to the electric power distribution network, management of generated heat, electromagnetic effects, encumbrance and weight of systems (and their distribu-
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tion) in the new configurations. The use of cryogenic fuels, such as hydrogen and biomethane, needs new propulsion systems and tanks that can be used at very low temperatures (-142 °C and -252 °C, respectively, for methane and hydrogen) and, in the case of hydrogen, also at very high temperatures, to allow its transport in the liquid state. The distribution of these fuels on board, their management from a thermal and safety point of view, their transformation from liquid to gas require the development of new materials and technologies in compliance with the strict rules for certifications to fly. The use of hydrogen as fuel requires also an adjustment of engines, but it seems to be the only way to be able to meet, by 2050, the stringent requirements of the Green Deal for intercontinental flights. Among the research goals are also alternative ways to hydrogen, such as hybrid electric, where electric power is provided by the combination of batteries and a fossil fuel power generator. Obviously, the above-mentioned goals need to be combined with high safety and security standard, with the essential operational flexibility of the air traffic management system and an increase in intermodality.
ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY Civil and military applications, such as the monitoring of critical infrastructures, urban safety, search and rescue, precision agriculture, environmental monitoring, transport and surveillance of road traffic are at the heart of a true revolution, called “Advanced Air Mobility” (AAM). Such perspective significantly changes our image of the future and characterizes it with new mobility paradigms. Unmanned, remotely-piloted and autonomous aircrafts are an innovative, big-growth industry which, in the next 20 years, will employ over 100.000 employees, with an economic impact higher than 10 billion Euros per year. The goal is to drastically reduce timings and the current issues of mobility, by developing innovative, environmentally-friendly and safe end-to-end transport and communication solutions. However, the development of the AAM, through the use of electric aircrafts with vertical take-off and landing (VOTL) capabilities, will require to face several challenges which involve, among other things, the airworthiness with drones and aircrafts piloted within the same airspace. Furthermore, the CIRA has the required skills and research infrastructures to develop such Innovative systems, up to their testing and validation. For this reason, the new PRORA programme leaves ample room to the AAM and the technological challenges related to: • the development of new air traffic management systems to ensure, on the one hand, safety and reliability standards and, on the other hand, operational simplicity, economicity, ease of use, autonomy for conducting complex missions; • development and integration of innovative sensors, for both navigation and collection of different types of information based on the type of mission. Also the use of swarms of autonomous aircrafts, as well as the interoperability of heterogeneous platforms (in function and size) is a key aspect of the research goals. In regards to this specific topic, the CIRA has recently won the EDA Defense Innovation Prize 2020 with the SWADAR project (Swarm ADvanced Detection And TRacking), whi-
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Space Qualification laboratory. Above: Space Rider flap.
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ch involves the use of a defense team of drones, which cooperate to protect infrastructures and platforms from the hostile attacks by swarms of unmanned aircrafts. Furthermore, the study of unconventional aero-propulsion configuration, capable of ensuring the required operational flexibility, stability, safety, energy efficiency and environmental compatibility, is scheduled for the AAM vehicles, as well as the study of electric technologies, to ensure the distribution of uplift and traction forces on more propellers, and avionics technologies to ensure their remote or autonomous piloting. The adoption of a law framework in conjunction with the national authorities and the assessment of the impact on the environment are further elements of the CIRA programme, which aims at contributing to thedevelopment of an ecosystem of drones and AAMs, in synergy with the industrial and scientific community and to implement the EU strategy.
A fianco il flap di Space Rider pronto per i test per il Plasma Wind Tunnel. Sotto, test eseguiti nel laboratorio di Qualifica Spaziale su un satellite 6U
ACCESS AND RETURN FROM SPACE The long cooperation between AVIO and the CIRA, started in 1997, continues today with the development of connecting elements between the different stages of the new VEGA-C launcher, designed and manufactured with a composite material and a specific topology, capable of ensuring the same mechanical resistance as metal but with a significant weight savings, which, as you know, represents one of the success factors in this industry. Within the new PRORA programme, the aim is to extend the use of these innovative structures, with the manufacturing of whole sections of space aircrafts, such as the fuselage, or the fairing of a launcher. Taking-off (and landing) from a substantially conventional airport to reach a space station orbiting around the Earth or Moon, landing on our satellite to travel to an inhabited base where human conditions of stay have been recreated: this is the challenge that the whole aerospace community has given itself. Winning such challenge means designing space vehicles with unconventional forms, which are capable of appropriately distributing the heat generated by the friction with air and equipped with highly-effective propulsion systems. Space aircrafts which are specifically designed with the paradigm of resability in mind, which will allow the same vehicle to safely carry out its missions, over and over again, like a normal airliner. Europe is working on a unique, highly competitive integrated system, where the VEGA-C launcher is combined with the development of a reusable space vehicle, “Space Rider”, capable of being orbited and transporting up to 800 kg of useful loads for experiments, being deorbited, returning to Earth and preparing for the next mission. On December 9th, at Palazzo Chigi, an agreement was signed between the ESA and the two industrial leaders, TaS-I and AVIO, for the manufacturing of the space shuttle which is expected to carry out six missions in total starting from 2023. Thanks to the setup of a new reinforced, long fiber ceramic material selected by the ESA, the CIRA is participating in the “Space Rider” programme to manufacture the thermal protections of the vehicle. The new material, registered with the name ISiComp®, is the expression of success of an all-Italian supply chain, which has put in common the CIRA’s research activities in the field of technologies forreturn from space and the industrial capabilities in the field of high technology
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for automotive of Petroceramics (a spin-off of the University of Milan and Brembo). Such technology has also the advantage of a faster production cycle compared to the ones we’ve been using so far to manufacture similar components. With a view to continuing to support the European and national space sector in the development and setup of new enabling technologies, the new PRORA aims at extending the experimental expertise and skills of the Centre (and of the Plasma Wind Tunnel, in particular), with the goal to create an actual Centre of Excellence for studying, developing and qualifying space technologies for access to and return from space. Another important aspect involves the development of new low-cost, highly flexible launch systems which, regardless of the presence of a launch base, will be capable of orbiting nano / micro-satellites (6U or 12 U), with a mass lower than 20 kg. The higher availability of increasingly flexible and performing systems to access space will allow to increase robotic, but also human space exploration capabilities. Interplanetary missions and long stays on space platforms will depend on the development of systems which are capable of guaranteeing the continuous regeneration of vital resources like water, oxygen and food, and safety in an extreme environment. With the PRORA, the CIRA aims at developing, along with the main national players, some of the required technologies for human exploration, by offering also the possibility to test them in a new facility which is capable of replicating many of the lunar and Martian environmental conditions (pressure, temperature, gas composition, sunlight, etc.) and allowing tests on real-size systems (robotic systems, spacesuits, solar panels, plants and bioregenerative systems, etc.). Within the PRORA, there are several activities for the development of hypersonic aircrafts which, thanks to innovative hydrogen propulsion systems, can reach a speed up to Mach 8 (about 9000 km/h) and cruising altitudes up to 30-35 km. The manufacturing of a demonstrator will make available to the national community a reference system for the development of a hypersonic vehicle of industrial and/or military interest.
EARTH OBSERVATION, ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND APPLICATIONS
First technological model of the VEGA-C interstage. Above: EDA Prize 2020 won by CIRA for the SWADAR project.
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In regards to Earth observation, the CIRA’s research activities follow a multidisciplinary approach that combines innovative observation instruments and techniques with biological sciences. A relevant research activity is targeted at the new environmental monitoring paradigms, based on the ability of a few vegetal species to work as a “sentinel” for several phenomena. These are the so-called bio indicators, which are capable of generating systematic and measurable responses to abiotic and biotic stress. These responses can be identified by remote sensors (carried by drones, satellites or stratospheric platforms) through techniques based on specific vegetation indexes. The measurement of fluorescence is one of the methods with more potential, as also confirmed by the significant investments made by the ESA in this specific sector. In this area, the CIRA is targeting its research activities both at innovative platforms, which are capable of combining proximity of observation and persistence on specific targets, and at observation techniques with a specific focus on environmental monitoring. Therefore, the CIRA has been believing for years in the development of components for the manufacturing of stratospheric hybrid platforms, which are capable of guaranteeing the required proximity and persistence to obtain high-re-
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solution spatial and temporal, on which highly automated data processing flows can be applied thanks to the aid of artificial intelligence algorithms. In particular, the CIRA aims at responding to environmental challenges through the BioScience project: the main challenge of this project is to establish and classify the response of the plants chosen as bio indicators in reaction to the stress caused by specific contaminants. To obtain this, the metabolic characteristics of the considered bio indicators will be experimentally assessed to establish those alterations which can be related to the exposure to given concentrations of contaminants. Another challenge involves the identification of an analytic and/or statistical relation between the variations of the plant’s electromagnetic spectrum and the presence of contaminants in the soil in a controlled environment (i.e. on other equal terms) and with on-ground sensors, to control any disturbance effects. The fascinating goal which guides this specific research sector is the valorization of several vegetal species for a comprehensive environmental monitoring, i.e. reading the signals that nature tries to send us through the huge and pervasive vegetal world. From an infrastructure point of view, the manufacturing of a Plant Phenotyping facility is particularly interesting for open field testing, with calibration and sensor validation functions for remote sensing (particularly from stratosphere). The facility will be specialized in the study of bio indication and will welcome several specifically selected vegetal species, simulating some stress conditions and testing and validating the ability of proximal and remote sensing techniques to provide a categorization of the response of plants to a species-substance matrix. The manufactured infrastructures may play a key role, also from an economic perspective, in the safeguard and valorization projects for Agrifood, the precious national supply chain, and in the projects to safeguard the environmental heritage.
STRATOSPHERIC FLIGHT The stratospheric platform, one of the main programmes of the new PRORA, is an innovative aerospace system to the service of Earth observation and telecommunications with regional coverage. We must remember that, as of today, no platform remains in the stratosphere for long periods and the challenges regarding the development of such route are related to several disciplinary areas: aerodynamics, structures and materials (for particularly severe conditions: -70 degrees, monoatomic oxygen and reduced convection), as well as a challenging commitment in the field of energy balance. The main characteristics of this system are its proximity to the Earth’s surface and the temporal persistence on the coverage of interest. A flight height of about 20 km allows to observe Earth with more spatial resolution and less expensive chambers than satellite chambers; as they are fully powered by solar energy, these platforms can keep flying for several months and remain in the same observation area. The ability to take off and land as a common vehicle (also on airfield) significantly simplifies operating procedures, also during emergencies. Furthermore, such characteristic allows to conduct payload shifts through simple operations with reduced cost. The landscape of applications and contexts which may benefit from the availability of stratospheric
High Altitude Hybrid Airship. Above: grid-type structures for the VEGA-C interstage.
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platforms is extremely varied, and the use of such platforms also contribute to reach many of the goals laid out by the United Nations in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Among these goals are, for example, the possibility to bring a fast Internet network to regions of the world where the implementation of a specific ground-based infrastructure would be too expensive; in the field of precision agriculture, the continuous, cheap and effective provision of new data on the status of vegetation, which allows a better management and higher yield of cultivations; and the possibility, in case of disasters and calamities, to create emergency communication networks where the existing ones are damaged. Today, the CIRA is committed in design activities for a demonstrator of a tactical stratospheric hybrid platform, based on the combined and optimized use of aerostatic and aerodynamic force. Such solution will allow to manufacture a small-sized platform, compared to other solutions which are capable of hosting payloads that it would not be possible to board on fixed-wing stratospheric platform and for which the stratospheric airships would be abnormally large. In this way, the stratospheric hybrid platform can be deployed quickly, also from unprepared surfaces, and transferred by using the road network.
TECHNOLOGIES FOR SUBORBITAL AIRCRAFTS The CIRA’s scientific offer involves the development of technologies for suborbital aircrafts, which are capable of travelling at very high speed, reaching space by exceeding a 100-km altitude, (Kármán line) and returning to Earth, without reaching an orbit and complete a full revolution. The suborbital aircrafts lend themselves to several applications: the most common applications involve microgravity science experiments, intercontinental semi ballistic flights (from Europe to North America in reduced times), the launch of small satellites in low terrestrial orbit, the surveillance of air space and even space tourism. The main challenge is putting in common (and possibly adapting) the techniques in the field of hypersonic aircrafts, launch systems and re-entry vehicles. To mention a few examples: the air-launched system and a rocket engine for an ascent up to 100 km altitude, an effective aerodynamic configuration for ascent and re-entry and the study of new passenger safety concepts. Obviously, in this specific case, the challenge is capturing the interest of national stakeholders (Air Force, ASI) towards the design and manufacturing of a system and the relevant mission.
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Regenerative combustion chamber (HYPROB-NEW project).
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The science fiction on Cinema and TV edited by Giornale dello Spettacolo
CHINESE SCI-FI SUCCEEDS IN THE WORLD
QUESTIONS TO THE SKY by Paolo Di Reda @ASI_spazio
In the wake of the launch of the Tianwen-1 (literally “Questions to the sky”) with destination Mars, China is living a strong creative impulse in the field of sci-fi, as shown by the header of an article published last July 28th by the official press agency of the People’s Republic of China, New China (XINHUA): “The mission on Mars inspires writers and artists”. Another hint of the awakening of sci-fi in China was given by the recent announcement of the launch of a new Netflix TV series coproduced with the Chinese society Yoozoo Group, an adaptation of the sci-fi saga “The three-body problem” by Liu Cixin, winner of the Hugo Award in 2015. “Remembrance Earth’s Past”, the original title of the trilogy, tells the relationship between the young physician Ye Wenjie and a civilization which lives in three solar system. «I’ve decided to tell a story which transcends time and the national, cultural and ethnic borders», explained the author Liu Cixin to the New China agency. «A story that forces us to consider the destiny of humanity as a whole». Those who enshrine the great ambitions of this project are the executive producers of the Netflix series, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the architects of the great success of “Game of Thrones”, who last year signed an exclusive deal with the U.S. streaming colossus, after spending several years at the service of HBO: «Liu Cixin’s trilogy is the most ambitious sci-fi series we’ve ever read and escorts the reader in a journey from the 60’s to the end of time, from life on our pale blue dot to the far borders of the universe», explained the two producers to New China. Another sci-fi novel by Liu Cixin, “The Wandering Earth”, became a hit movie in 2019 and generated revenues for 4.68 billion yuan (about 670 U.S. billion dollars) only in Mainland China. It’s the second highest-grossing movie in the history of cinema in the most populous country in the world and, furthermore, it’s the most expensive sci-fi movie ever produced in China. The movie begins with the discovery that the Sun is dying and that we need to find a solution to prevent the destruction of the planet. “The Wandering Earth” assumes to build some huge planetary propellers to move Earth out of the Sun’s orbit, towards a new star system. Eventually, this a disaster-movie on climate changes, which invites to a better and true international cooperation. In Italy, the movie was laun-
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«The TV series, adaptation of the Chinese sci-fi saga “The three-body problem”, makes the news.»
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An image from Shangai Fortress. Credits: Netflix.
ched by Netflix and is still available on this platform. 2019 confirms to be a decisive year for the definitive launch of sci-fi in China, with the release of “Last Sunrise” by Wen Ren, a highly refined work that assumes a dystopic future where the Sun disappears. This is a major problem in a world where energy is 100% solar. Things get complicated when also oxygen runs out and the temperature drops permanently below zero. An astronomer and his neighbor will look for a solution away from the city. “Last Sunrise” won the first prize at the Fantasporto festival in Portugal and was presented last year in Italy at the Trieste Science + Fiction Festival, as a film in competition. Despite the good reviews, the movie isn’t available online yet. Instead, “Shanghai Fortress” is a 2019 movie and is available on Netflix. It’s a genre film based on the classic clash between terrestrials and aliens. The latter are looking for a source of energy which is essential for them on our planet. The 2007 movie “Paparax” deserves a separate mention, not so much for the experimentalism of its interesting story, as for its author and main character, Xia Jia, a Chinese writer and Chinese literature teacher at the Xi’an Jiaotong University, a very influential character in the new Chinese culture. Winner of five Galaxy Awards and six Nebula prizes, her novel “Spring Festival” was published in Italy by Future Fiction, as well as her short stories included in two anthologies translated in Italian: “Stories from tomorrow 2: the best Future Fiction short stories 2015” and the 2018 “Nebula: contemporary Chinese sci-fi”, containing also short stories by Liu Cixin and another emerging writer like Chen Qiufan.
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THE DATA COLLECTED BY NASA
THE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGES ON THE ARCTIC FAUNA by Francesca Cherubini @asi_spazio
Climate changes have important consequences for the conditions of our planet, and they also have an impact on the life of wild animals, marked by the changing seasons. Seasonal cues, such as the change of temperatures, tell animals when to migrate, when to mate and when to look for food. According to a recent study, published in Science and funded by the NASA’s Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) and carried out thanks to the data collected by the U.S. space agency, animals’ movement patterns are shifting in different ways due to the climate changes, and this might have unknown impacts on entire ecosystems. Researchers analyzed the data from the Arctic animal movement archive (Aama), a collection of data coming from over 200 research studies which monitored almost a hundred species from 1991 to today. Such information has been mixed with the climate data collected by the NASA on temperature, rainfalls and snowfalls, as well as a series of topographical
The mainland of the Arctic Ocean.
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data. The team focused on three examples: a longterm study on eagle migrations, a long-term study on migrations of caribou populations and a multi-species study focusing on several predators and prey species. The analysis of the study on eagles has shown, in the examined period of time, a postponement of nearly two weeks of the seasonal migration; this may cause problems as regards the mating season and the food supply chain. The study on the caribou populations has shown that the populations of this species, particularly those which live in the Northern Arctic where climate change is felt more, are adapting to climate changes by modifying their life cycles. Subsequently, researchers have analyzed the behaviors of several predators and prey species, including black bears, grizzly bears, caribou, moose and wolves, to figure out how higher temperatures and increased rainfalls affect their habits. It emerged that predator species seem to respond to climate change in a different way than prey species, but the implications of such discrepancy are still unknown. The analysis of the three scenarios has, indeed, highlighted important changes in the migration models of different species, but it’s not possible yet to establish what consequences will have such changes. To be able to establish the long-term impacts, we will need to continue to monitor the situation.
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THE SATELLITE MONITORS THE SEA LEVEL Artistic rendering of the Sentinel-6. Credits: ESA.
SENTINEL-6, GUARDIAN OF THE CLIMATE by Simone Collini @simone_collini
The Sentinel-6 has started to send the first useful data to monitor climate changes. The satellite of the European Union’s Copernicus family was launched at the end of November from the Vandenberg base, in California and, after reaching an altitude of 1336 km from Earth, it started to measure the level of oceans. Recently named Michael Frelich in honor of the previous director of the NASA Earth Science division, the Sentinel-6 is indeed the last of a group of space vehicles involved in the fight against global warming. Every 10 days, the U.S.-European satellite will map up to 95% of those ocean surfaces which are free from ice and will not only provide atmospheric data that will improve weather forecasts, climate models and hurricane monitoring, but also highly accurate information as regards sea level. And considering that this data is a key indicator to assess climate change, and in particular the increase of Earth’s temperature and the dangers related to ice melting, now we have a tool, as trustworthy as ever, on which the decision-making bodies and the subjects involved in protecting the populations who live in low-lying, potentially at risk areas will be able to rely. Indeed, there are several “negationists”, of different types and nationalities and with different jobs, also in the field of climate emergency. However, before the sophisticated instruments aboard the space vehicle and the data that will be sent until 2030 (in 2025 there will be a passing of the torch, with the launch of the twin Sentinel-6B), it will be even more complicated to deny that we have a climate issue to face and resolve. The satellite, the result of a unique partnership between the European Space Agency (ESA), the U.S. NASA, Eumetsat and NOAA, with the contribution of the French Cnes, will be capable of measuring, with millimeter precision, the level of oceans and recording any minimal change over the years. How? Simplifying, it will do so by measuring its height vs the sea level, through the use of a radar altimeter for spa-
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«The Sentinel-6 is the newcomer of a family which has been monitoring our planet for years»
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ce called Poseidon-4, provided by Thales Alenia Space through the CNES. In practice, the satellite sends a pulse which is then reflected, and the analysis of the time spent to return the vehicle is used to calculate the satellite-surface distance of water. The first, possible objection by the “negationist” on duty, ready to refute the data: where does the certainty on the position of the satellite, and on the sea level, come from? Answer: from Doris, i.e. the Doppler Orbitography and Radioposition Integrated by Satellite, a system that has already been successfully tested with the other components of the Sentinel family and, thanks to the over 50 stations which are equally distributed on the Earth’s surface, is capable of continuously inferring the exact position of the satellite. Second possible objection: the winds, the higher or lower rate of humidity close to the surfaces and, more in general, the aqueous vapor in the atmosphere can interfere with the measurements and give wrong results. Answer: no, none of this is possible, thanks to the presence of specific instruments aboard the Sentinel-6, designed to resolve the issues related to any disturbance. In particular, one of these instruments is called Amr-C, acronym for Advanced Microwave Radiometer for Climate, capable of measuring with extreme accuracy the quantity of aqueous vapor between the space vehicle and the ocean surface. The Sentinel-6 is the newcomer of a family which has been monitoring our planet for years. The data we hold speak of a nearly 20-cm increase of the sea level, overall, between 1900 and 2010, which has then dramatically shifted to 3.2 millimeters more every year in the last decade. The answers that, starting from today and until 2030, we will get from the Sentinel-6 and its twin Sentinel-6B will tell us if this unbelievable, shocking record is meant to be broken. But then it will be probably clear to everyone that the answers to solve the problem won’t come from the sky.
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THALES ALENIA SPACE
EXPERIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR CLIMATE by Editorial Staff @ASI_spazio
Crediti: Gerald Bruneau.
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How can we protect the environment? How can we assess natural disasters? How can we understand and mitigate the complex phenomenon of climate change? Thales Alenia Space’s satellite technology is the answer to some of the most important questions of humanity as regards our planet and our relationship with it, thanks to the support and long-sightedness of the European and Italian space agencies. The Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%) joint venture has recently signed with the European Space Agency three contracts for environmental monitoring, within the ESA’s Copernicus Space Component programme, in partnership with the European Commission. B y leveraging its consolidated experience, coming from the participation in the previous Copernicus missions and in the most important programmes for Earth observation, Thales Alenia Space will manufacture an imaging microwave radiometer (CIMR – Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer), two satellites for the hyperspectral imaging mission (CHIME) and a L-band satellite (ROSE-L). All of this for a value of over 2 billion Euros, translating in the safeguard of highly-qualified works and industrial know-how in our European territories. As regards the CIMR, Thales Alenia Space is the first contractor of the mission, OHB Italia is the main partner for the instrument and HPS (High Performance Space Structure System GmbH) is the main partner for the reflector of the antenna. This mission commits to provide observations of the temperature and saltiness of the sea surface, as well as the concentration of sea ice. Furthermore, it will also observe, in a unique way, other parameters such as the thickness of sea ice, the floating sea ice, the type / stage of ice, the thickness of snow on sea ice or the temperature of ice surface. The CIMR will respond to the high-priority needs of Arctic communities and will improve the continuity of missions to monitor polar regions, particularly in terms of spatial resolution (~5 km), temporal resolution, (time-points lower than a day) and geophysical accuracy. The CIMR’s measurement performance are at the forefront at a global level. As regards Rose-L, Thales Alenia Space will be the first contractor with Airbus Defence and Space, as the main partner for the radar instrument. ROSE-L is a satellite stabilized on three-axis based on the new multi-mission platform (MILA), produced by Thales Alenia Space, and will have the L-band synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) aboard, which will be in charge of the day and night monitoring of territories, ice and oceans with a significantly improved revisiting time, complete polarimetry, high spatial resolution, high sensibility, low ambiguity coefficients and repeat and single-pass transverse interferometry. The highly-innovative phased array (PAA) planar antenna, in lightweight material, is equipped with 5 deployable panels and has a total size of
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11 m x 3.6 m; a set of 3 cameras (CAM) to monitor the deployment of the SAR antenna and the solar panels. ROSE-L will provide radar-imaging capabilities well beyond those provided by Sentinel-1 and, therefore, is an opportunity to increase the coverage at a European and global level, by reducing the time-points between consecutive radar images. This mission is capable of responding both to the needs expressed by territory monitoring services and those expressed by emergency management services. The following are the main intended applications: mapping of the soil coverage and moisture, identification of the type of cultivation and discrimination of its status, type of forest / forest cover (supporting biomass assessment), food safety and support to the implementation of precision farming, maritime surveillance and identification of natural and anthropic risks. Furthermore, the mission will contribute to the operational monitoring of the cryosphere and the polar regions, including the mapping of sea ice and terrestrial ice. Other emerging applications will be made possible by synergic observations, complementary with the C-band and X-band search and rescue (SAR) systems. Finally, Thales Alenia Space will be the prime contractor and integrator for CHIME, along with OHB and Leonardo, as the main payload partner. This mission will have aboard a one of a kind infrared spectrometer operating in the visible and short wave spectrum, to provide routine hyperspectral observations supporting new and enhanced services in the field of food safety and management of agriculture and biodiversity, as well as services to characterize the properties of the soil, sustainable extractive practices and safeguard of the environment. This mission, whose instantaneous swath is 128 km, will complement Copernicus Sentinel-2 for applications such as land-cover mapping. Thales Alenia Space will also be in charge of developing the payload for two further missions: CO2M, to measure global man-made CO2 emissions and play a key role in studying the reasons of climate change and its monitoring, and the IRIS altimeter, aboard the CRISTAL mission. The innovative solutions provided by Thales Alenia Space, a perfect mix between experience, expertise and technology, significantly contribute to the incredible industrial challenge posed by the extension of the Copernicus programme for a sustainable planet. The integration of optical sensors and space-based radars will play a key role in enabling an accurate monitoring of climate change and an effective and safe use of Earth resources. Thales Alenia Space's satellite technology will play a key role in enabling the accurate monitoring of climate change and the safe and effective use of ground-based resources.
Our planet seen from the International Space Station. Credits: NASA.
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D-FLIGHT
INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY FOR INVISIBLE INFRASTRUCTURES
by Editorial Staff @ASI_spazio
Crediti: Gerald Bruneau.
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D-Flight, company of the ENAV group in partnership with Leonardo and Telespazio, manages the only platform in Italy, and one of the first in Europe, for the delivery of services to unmanned aerial vehicles and, in general, to all the other types of aircrafts which fall within this category. We make available to our users the services provided by the ENAC law for the safe use of drones, to promote the development of an industry which estimates to have 7.4 million drones in the European skies by 2035, for a turnover of about 10 billion euros. To guarantee the development of this flywheel consistently with the rules of safety and cost-effectiveness, we are on the front line to manufacture the U-Space, the airspace below 120 meters regarded as the key element for the safe use of drones in every context and for all types of missions, in Italy. The U-Space services are evolving in parallel with the drone’s automation level and guarantee advanced forms of interaction with the environment, the exchange of digital information and data for both manned and unmanned vehicles. Innovation and technology for an invisible infrastructure which generates safe, sustainable and high-quality solutions. This is the goal we are aiming at, to guarantee and enable the use of drones for business and socially-relevant activities. Even now, such tools allow us to intervene on the management of public order and urban safety and also to monitor critical infrastructures, environmental survey, transport of medicines and, in the future, also the transport of persons. We want to integrate this new traffic need and enable it to coexist with the traditional air traffic. Therefore, we develop enabling technologies for the progressive performance of operation in increasingly complex operational scenarios. We see a world where drones can become common objects, which are fully accepted in the daily life of all citizens and are safely used to make services effective, innovative and capable of guaranteeing a sustainable economy.
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SPACE FOR LIFE WE BELIEVE IN SPACE AS HUMANKIND’S NEW HORIZON TO BUILD A BETTER, SUSTAINABLE LIFE ON EARTH
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