Spazio 2050 n. 6 - Smallsat Revolution - English

Smallsat Revolution

New frontiers for exploration, reduced costs, highly-innovative services: how small satellites are changing Space and our daily life

In partnership with

READY FOR THE FUTURE

SUMM A RY

ISSUE NUMBER 6, NOVEMBER 2022

A rendering of the ArgoMoon CubeSat with the real images of Earth and the Moon taken by the satellite between November 16th and 19th, 2022.

Credits: ASI/NASA

4 SmallSat, the revolution of the small by Emilio Cozzi

Nanosatellites, space knights in small size by Silvia Natalucci

Infographic: The Alcor feet by Alberto Fedele, Giuseppe Leccese e Manuela Proietti

LiciaCube, made in Italy in the deep space by Giuseppe Nucera

The Iss: a springboard for Cubesats by Giulia Bonelli

Pioneers headed to the Moon by Manuela Proietti

A full tank of CubeSats for Vega C by Fulvia Croci

Guarneri

Ciccarelli

Magazine of the Italian Space Agency

Supplement of Global Science Newspaper of the Globalist group Registered with the Court of Roma N. 11/2017 of 02.02.2017 Printed at Peristegraf s.r.l. Via Giacomo Peroni 130, Rome

Curated by ASI Multimedia Unit Head of Unit Giuseppina Pulcrano

Managing director Gianni Cipriani

Editorial coordination Manuela Proietti, ASI Multimedia Unit

The Starlinks and the new frontier of satellite broadband by Giuseppina Pulcrano

What are Cubesats used for? by Giulia Bonelli

Defending space assets by Andrea Cardellicchio 42

Becoming an astronaut, the reality of a dream by Paolo D'Angelo

Design Paola Gaviraghi

Thanks to the following colleagues from the ASI: Silvia Natalucci Head of Micro & Nanosatellite Unit, Alberto Fedele and Giuseppe Leccese.

Smallsat, the revolution of the small

by Emilio Cozzi

On June 17th, 1946, in Saint Louis, a man picked up the phone and history answered: he was in his car, and that call would be the frst one from a mobile device.

In 2021, 75 years later, a few newspapers commemorated the event by highlighting a vintage curiosity: that phone, tested by Southwestern Bell, one of AT&T’s local companies, “took up much of the space of the boot” and “weighed 80 pounds”, about 36 kilograms. In other words, to be a stricto sensu portable device, it needed a car to make it mobile Mutatis mutandis, something similar is happening in the feld of technology designed to operate beyond the terrestrial atmosphere.

The frst satellite built and launched by man, the Soviet Sputnik, weighed 83 kilos: we would now call it a “nanosatellite”, from the SmallSat family, tools whose mass is lower than six quintals.

However, except from this historical record, the Sputnik had very few functions: sending a radio signal, listened to also by radio amateurs all over the world, and scare Americans to death.

In the six subsequent decades, the orbited satellites were like the mobile phone in Saint Louis: big, heavy and expensive, and they required a transport vehicle, a partly exclusive launcher (chosen to meet their needs), to move. However, same as in mobile telephony, a few giant steps have been made in the feld of aerospace technology, which have allowed to return to the limited size of the frst Sputnik and excessively expand his capacity and utility. It’s a process which is capable of radically changing the strategies of a few business sectors.

An image of Verrazzano bridge in New York, taken by Cosmo-SkyMed. Credits: Asi

According to an analysis by Bryce Tech on the decade between 2012 and 2021, over 4.600 out of the 5.681 satellites launched in space, that is 82%, are Smallsats. In 2021, small satellites accounted for 94%, that is 43% of the overall mass sent beyond the sky. The boom, in the last two years, is due to the Starlink and OneWeb mega-constellations for broadband Internet, which together have seen the departure of over 2.000 units. Smaller, cheaper and more numerous, same as smartphones.

Space agencies are moving in the same direction: the Nasa, for example, will take Smallsats around the Moon. The Italian Space Agency will soon launch new satellite programs born around the same concept, of course, without abandoning the path followed so far with large devices. Actually, it will be an integration of the big with the small, whereas the second one is the result of the research conducted to develop and build “heavy” and highly-performing tools such as Cosmo-SkyMed and Prisma: state-of-the-art knowledge and know-how

PLATiNO 1 (SAR) in orbit over Italy (rendering) Credits: Asi

in Earth observation technologies. The way was paved by the Plati no (High-technology space platform) program, the promise of a new extra-atmospheric paradigm: it’s a standard and customizable structure, capable of hosting diferent tools for equally diferent purposes.

The second one, Iride, was “baptized” last May by Samantha Cristo foretti, during a live session from the International Space Station. The constellation will be made up of dozens of Smallsats with diferent si zes: a feet with groups of satellites designed to measure specifc aspects, from the quality of water to the movements of soil. These will be joined by the feet of Alcor CubeSats, about which we will talk in the article in the next few pages.

Platino is a “jolly ”. It means that the same model of vehicle, a satel lite, can be equipped with diferent tools according to the required features: Earth observation, telecommunications, scientifc fndings. Funded by the Asi and the government with 100 million euros, Platino will be manufactured by a temporary group of companies, made up of the ofcial supplier Sitael with Thales Alenia Space, Leonardo and Airbus Defence and Space. Still in the Smallsats class, it will use smal ler tools, satellites weighing about 200 kilograms: «Starting from 2017 – recalls Francesco Longo, head of Earth Observation unit of the Italian Space Agency – we developed this multi-mission platform, designed to have the right fexibility and carry several tools. The goal is increasing performance and reducing size». In other words, ofering the “model” of a spacecraft – a car which carries a phone, still talking about Saint Louis -: a small one, but with an increasingly important performance, which can be integrated with that of bigger and more expensive satellites. This in-tandem operation approach has no equivalent as of today. An example of this will be Platino 1: it will take of by 2023, it will be equipped with a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) tool in the X-ray band – a technology where Italy has been standing out for years – and will operate with Cosmo-SkyMed, for example to measure the movements of soil: volcanoes, landslides on mountainsides, but also bridges and buildings. «They will work with what, in jargon, is named a bistatic confguration: Cosmo-SkyMed, like a radar, is an illuminator and sends and receives a signal (electromagnetic emissions in radio frequency, editor’s note). Likewise, Platino will be capable of both sending and receiving, but also of observing the energy refected by Cosmo-SkyMed. It’s like it is observing the same scene from another point of view, and this will signifcantly increase the information contained in each image. It will be undoubtedly useful, for example, to the Civil Protection department». Developed with the Nasa, the Platino 2 mission will instead carry a tool in the infrared, designed to measure the quality of air, particulate matter and fne dust. Its current name is Maia (Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols) and is expected to take of in 2024: «It will be an extraordinary, citizen-oriented mission – observes the Asi engineer -, which isn’t just targeted at biochemical knowledge, but will also be in partnership with healthcare communities. It is not by chance that Arpa Emilia Romagna is part of our advisory group and scientifc community. Platino 2 is designed to observe critical areas such as Taranto, Gela, the Po Valley, and cross the information on particulate matter with statistics on respiratory diseases».

Platino 3 will take a road less travelled as regards the Italian sensor technology, that high-resolution optical cameras, where France is currently holding a leadership position (just think of the pair of Pleiades satellites). Equipped with a hawk’s sight, Platino 3 will boast a half-a-meter ground resolution.

Finally, Platino 4 will enhance the “superpowers” of another national excellence, the Prisma (Hyperspectral Precursor of the Application Mis-

is an illuminator, and sends and receives a signal

An image of Chongqing, China taken by Cosmo-SkyMed. Credits: Asi

sion), which monitors the planet’s health by observing the chemical form of the elements it is made up of: “In this case, it’s not the 30-meter space resolution which is interesting, but the spectral one. Prisma works on 240 bands and provides 240 images for each part of Earth it observes. This allows to understand the biochemical characteristics of matter. The second-generation Prisma will have a 10-meter spatial resolution, which no one has. Platino 4 will add its multispectral, slightly lower performance, which however is obtained thanks to a satellite weighing just 250 kilograms. One day we may think of launching fve or six of them and have an on-demand observation capacity, when and where necessary, thanks to a revisit time of just a few hours».

The “revisit time” is the time it takes for a satellite to look at the same location again. It’s one of the strengths brought by SmallSat constellations. Today, the most well-known examples are the above-mentioned Starlink and OneWeb, infrastructures designed to guarantee a ubiquitous, broadband and low-latency Internet connection from space: by travelling in or-

bits close to Earth, and therefore at high speed, each of their units soon disappears beyond the horizon. To guarantee the continuity of service, we therefore need a closely interconnected network, made up of thousands of satellites. “We do not only need a progressive improvement of performance: this must happen by taking advantage of small objects – highlights Longo, bringing the discussion back to the topic of Italian programs -. It would be unthinkable to launch twenty Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation satellites, but we may obtain an outstanding performance, at reduced costs, with 30 Smal. That’s why high revisit capability is a key concept for Iride».

Increasing the number of tools has a cost, but the miniaturization of components and the possibility to launch dozens of them with a single rocket have decreed the success of a new type of orbital architecture. Along with that comes the boom of the market: a report by Euroconsult estimates that, in the most recent dehave moved over 23 billion dollars at global level. Such amount is ready to increase to 84 billion dollars in the next ten years: «The peculiarity of Iride is the fact that this constellation is made up of dozens of satellites whose size is smaller than the main tools developed by Italy, such as Cosmo-SkyMed – explains Guido Levrini, project manager of Iride for the European Space Agency and, until a few months ago, head of the space segment of the Copernicus program. These satellites won’t be all identical, but will have diferent sizes: we will start from the smallest ones, weighing around 25 kilograms, and we’ll continue with the biggest ones, from the Platino program, weighing around 350 kilograms. We’ll do this because they will be equipped with sensors and tools that have a diferent complexity and nature and, subsequently, also a diferent weight».

No less important is the fact that Iride can be regarded as a result of the approach – or the philosophy - at the core of Platino: several types of satellites imply a wide range of skills, the result of the technological progress of our country which, starting from big satellites, has managed to gather sensors and calculating capacity with increasingly agile sizes.

In fact, what is self-evident with Platino is common to experiences such as that of Argotec, which has manufactured Asi’s CubeSats LiciaCube and Argomoon and brought them to fy with the Nasa in the Dart missions, pointing the Dimorphos asteroid towards the Moon in the frst planetary defence test in history, aboard Artemis I.

That’s how Iride was born: «Its missions will be single-sensors missions – continues Levrini -, synthetic

A representation of the Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation satellites. Credits: Asi

aperture radars, hyperspectral and infrared sensors, optical payloads with two or three-meter resolution (sometimes less than one meter). Iride will range from the observation of coasts to the monitoring of atmosphere, from the quality of water and water system to the movements of soil and large infrastructures. These capabilities can translate into safety, prevention and emergency management services, or in applications to support agriculture, manage the woodland heritage and many other things».

In emergency conditions, we’ll be able to observe fooded zones to identify submerged areas, for example by using radars. Alternatively, it will be possible to identify damaged buildings a few hours after an earthquake. At the same time, the eyes of the constellation will carry out a continuous monitoring, to make sure any critical scenario is predicted, faced or at least limited as soon as possible. New sentinels, more numerous and ready, will be able to perceive the upcoming cases of collapse and subsidence: «Iride is an end-to-end program, which promises a leap in quality in the use of satellite data for those who, as of today, don’t use them in a systematic manner – continues Levrini -. An important case is that of public administration, both at a regional and at a local level. The observations will help the Carabinieri for forest, environmental and agri-food protection, who have the task of monitoring the entire Italian woodland heritage, not only fres. Still talking about coasts, it will be possible to monitor the erosion, quality of water and sediments deposited by the discharge of rivers. In the feld of agriculture, a better and more punctual satellite performance will be equivalent to applications which are relevant also in the commercial feld: just think of the so-called precision farming and the management services for the growth of crops and the exploitation of hydric resources, which is important also in the feld of agriculture».

The emphasis placed on this aspect is anything but marginal: in 2016, more than half of Smallsats operated in the feld of Earth observation, which is thriving in the age of the new space economy. Increasing the number of satellites means being able to constantly look towards what is most interesting on Earth. Having both large and small tools, and being able to combine their capacities, means being able to further improve the quality of that look and transform data, and their processing, in increasingly precious raw materials for an industry of services and applications which is constantly growing.

That’s why the public investment in the Iride program, 1.1 billion Euros from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, has the ambition of becoming a fywheel for private initiative: «Data will be shared with investors who are ready to face business risk and provide services to the commercial sector, while also making business», concludes Levrini. And it’s indicative that the program has a tight turnaround time: Iride will have to be orbited by the end of 2025, and it will happen thanks to Vega C, another signifcant success of the Italian space ecosystem.

Platino also aims at becoming an incentive for businesses. First of all, for the satellites, which should perhaps be produced in series. It’s a relatively new approach to the industry: satellites or space environments will no longer be built from scratch, and there will be an already tested and customizable standard model, similar to a prefabricated structure, which will be then exported: «The industrial sector in charge of the manufacturing of Platino is already recording a signifcant success, and this is one of the main purposes: making sure that the required assets for monitoring are attractive on the international market», concludes Longo. Something very similar to what happened after that phone call in Saint Louis, in 1946.

An image of Panama Canal, taken by Cosmo-SkyMed. Credits: Asi

An image of the Egyptian pyramids, taken by Cosmo-SkyMed. Credits: Asi

Danubio – Black Sea, Romania, image taken by Cosmo-SkyMed. Credits: Asi

NaNosatellites, space knights in small size

Alcor and Mizar are two stars from the Ursa Major constellation. Together, they form one of the most famous visual binaries in the sky. Alcor, also known with the nickname of “small knight”, is the smallest of the two, which generally goes unnoticed due to Mizar, which steals the show. Only an acute sight allows to see both, so much that an ancient Persian text from the X century talks about lookouts and soldiers which were chosen among those who were capable of distinguish among the two stars. And from this anecdote was born the idea of giving the name Alcor to one of the most innovative programs of the Italian Space Agency, a project which looks far ahead, to that future of space which is increasingly characterized by the interest towards small satellites, which in jargon are called nanosatellites: a concentration of high space technology in a few dozen kilograms, compared to the tons of traditional satellites. The focus on this class of satellites has been growing over the years, based on a few factors which, working in synergy, have made their manufacturing, launch and operations more and more accessible, with a low cost. In this regard, the miniaturization of components and subsystems, the development of the CubeSat standard, the use of commercial of-the-shelf components (COTS) and more and more frequent and cheap occasions for launch have played a key role, thanks to the development of commercial space transportation systems.

by Silvia Natalucci

Mizar and Alcor form one of the most famous visual binaries in the sky.

The market research system Allied Marked Research expects the sector of microsatellites and nanosatellites, which wasn’t afected by contractions during the years of the pandemic either, to reach a market value of 8.69 billion dollars by 2030. The creation of new space applications and services based on nanosatellite platforms has found, over the years, the interest of a growing number of new developers, users and fnancial supporters, which aren’t traditionally linked to the space market, such as small and medium-sized enterprises, research centres, universities and developing countries, and have made a crucial contribution to the phenomenon of space democratization and have become useful tools in the tables of space diplomacy all over the world.

Alcor was born from the idea of creating a continuous program dedicated to nanosatellites, which can act as a technological incubator, giving to those who have new ideas or are looking for new services the opportunity to develop at least the frst prototype and then carry on their business with a strongly customer-oriented view, independently fnding the potential users among a wide range of stakeholders, including institutions such as the Ministry of Defence and the Civil Protection Department. The program, aimed at putting our space community in a leadership position both at European and international level, has started to take shape in July 2021, following the selection of twenty highly innovative missions. As of today, eleven of them have fully started and nine of them are at the starting blocks.

Alcor’s twenty missions do not only cover the main application domains of the space sector, such as Earth observation, telecommunications, in-orbit servicing, space sustainability, astrophysics and Universe exploration, but also include all the emerging trends observed in the last few years, such as the use of constellations equipped with more and more performing cooperation capabilities between the single satellites, the use of miniaturized propulsion systems, an increase in the available power and the capacity of transmitting data to Earth, the use of artifcial intelligence for onboard data processing, the use of active and passive deorbiting systems, new high-tech solutions for foldable antennas and, fnally, a larger use of nanosatellites for space exploration.

Let’s have a closer look at these twenty missions from the Alcor program, starting with the four Earth observation missions. Since their target are low Earth orbits, known with the acronym of LEO (300-1000 km), they’re historically the application domain with most heritage for the nanosatellite sector. In this context, the emerging aspect is defnitely that related to the low-cost reduction of revisit times, obtainable with constellations, whereas the most signifcant limits are intrinsically related to the miniaturization

of payloads and platforms: low image resolution, limited power at stake and a reduced capacity to transmit data to Earth. Alcor’s missions implement several strategies to overcome such limits, starting from SATURN and RODiO, which use a swarm of CubeSats to manufacture a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) antenna, which can be deployed and reconfgured thanks to a proper combination of signals coming from each node of the swarm, with diferent technological and architectural choices for each of the two missions. EarthNext, instead, aims at taking advantage of the potential ofered by the proximity to Earth of a CubeSat developed to operate at very low altitudes, ranging from 300 and 500 kilometres, and equipped with an electric propeller and a multispectral camera. A different strategy for VULCAIN, which will show in orbit the ability to obtain stereoscopical images of Earth, both in the visible and near-infrared (VNIR) and in the visible (VIS) spectrum, for the monitoring of volcanic activity and coast areas, by taking advantage of the formation fight of two CubeSats equipped with electric propulsion.

The telecommunications sector is another one where using constellations of small satellites can bring a great advantage, due to the ability to ofer a ubiquitous coverage of the globe at low cost from LEO orbits, without prejudice to the need to exceed the same limits that we have highlighted for Earth observation missions. In BISS, the increase in the available power and downlink capacity will be guaranteed by the development of innovative solutions implemented aboard a CubeSat, which will be the frst prototype for a future constellation which aims at providing an Internet of things (IoT) service which is compatible with both the Earth and the satellite network. The service may fnd a useful application in the monitoring of critical national infrastructures, but also in the feld of logistics, agriculture and maritime transport, just to name a few. A similar target for PiCO-IoT, which will demonstrate in orbit a concept of picosatellite constellation, each of them with a mass of less than half a kilo, for the recovery of compact packages of IoT data transmitted through a network of sensors distributed on Earth. Furthermore, the constellation will be conceived in order to enable a deployment which is fast, efective and, at the same time, compliant with the regulations on the non-proliferation of space debris. The third telecommunications mission, named SAILS, is aimed at manufacturing an independent location and identifcation system to board onto a CubeSat, potentially useful for a range of applications, such as the monitoring of space debris, navigation and support to rendez-vous and collision avoidance manoeuvres.

The missions described so far have LEO orbits as a target, but the interest in the use of nanosatellites in deep space has strongly grown in the last few years. This is a sector where the Italian Space Agency can

in the last few years, the interest in using nanosatellites also in the deep space has risen sharply.

boast the very recent success of the LiciaCube Smallsat, the frst in Europe to reach deep space and to successfully witness the collision of the NASA’s DART mother probe with the small asteroid Dimorphos. An all-Italian success, which bodes well for the two planetary exploration missions of the Alcor program, named TASTE and ANIME . The frst of these missions will validate in orbit a few enabling technologies for the robotic exploration of one of the two Martian moons aboard a CubeSat-in-CubeSat platform, made up of an orbiter and a lander. The second one will explore, from a heliocentric orbit located in deep space, three Near-Earth-Asteroids (NEA), which are particularly interesting from both a scientifc and a planetary defence standpoint. Both of them will have to face important challenges related to the exposure to a particularly hostile environment in terms of radiation and the difculty of receiving and transmitting data, amplifed by the distance from Earth which has an impact on several aspects, including navigation, guidance and control.

The mission FUTURE is aimed at solving such issue and developing an independent location estimation capability, based on specifc artifcial intelligence sensors and algorithms, capable of reducing the dependency of navigation on operators and ground-based support services and structures.

First of all, validation will be completed in LEO orbits and, later on, there will be a switch to future applica tions in deep space. The same technological transfer path will be applied to the INNOVATOR mission, a constellation of two CubeSats aimed at experimen ting a new scientifc tool for highly-accurate radio science, in particular in the feld of gravity science (determination of planetary masses gravity felds) and atmospheric science (determination of the property of neutral and ionized atmospheres), which would potentially allow to conduct a few high-profle interplanetary exploration missions.

Due to the limited costs and fast development times, nanosatellites are the ideal platforms also for the in-orbit demonstration (IOD) of technologies which, later on, can be used in several applicative-scientifc contexts. This is the case, for example, of the EXCITE mission, which will validate in orbit two chemical and electrical propulsion thrusters, a device for the management of heat fows, a commercial graphic processing unit for the onboard computer and a high-performance, orientable microwave antenna, or the RAMSESS mission, aimed at technological validation of an innovation cosmic radiation sensors, capable of measuring the total dose absorbed simultaneously with energy and nature of each single interaction event, which can be used to design methods of electronic screening, or in the context of multi-messenger astronomy. In-orbit demonstration is also the focus of the e-Cube mission,

which will validate technologies and methods aimed at characterizing the circumterrestrial environment in terms of space debris and atmosphere, in order to guarantee more autonomy in terms, respectively, of Collision Avoidance and re-entry manoeuvres.

Thanks to the continuous improvement of performance and reliability, nanosatellites have become the object of growing interest also for scientifc missions. In the Alcor program, we even fnd fve of them, ranging from astrophysics, to astrobiology and space weather. For example, BOREALIS will assess the efects of microgravity and ionizing radiations on microbial bioflms, testing also the combined efcacy of radioprotection systems based on physical screening and pharmacological treatment, with the intent of providing key information for the preparation of future human missions on the Moon and Mars. The CHIPS mission has no less ambitious goals, starting from the manufacturing of the frst cryogenic infrared space telescope, whose size is such that it can be boarded on a CubeSat. This will allow to perform state-of-the-art scientifc research in the feld of astrophysics. Great interest also in the study of the Sun and Space Weather, an industry where Alcor can boast as many as three missions. A frst mission, named HENON, will demonstrate in-orbit that the use of a CubeSat on a distant retrograde orbit (DRO), which had never been explored before, will allow to signifcantly expand the observation window of the phenomena related to space weather and drastically increase the predictive power. Instead, the CUSP mission will carry a polarimeter for the observation of hard X-ray in the Sun-synchronous polar orbit, which is optimal for the continuous observation of the Sun and the phenomena linked to its activity. Same orbit for the SEE mission, which will study our star’s electromagnetic emission in the ultraviolet, soft X-ray and gamma spectrum, allowing to perform studies on solar activity, Sun-Earth relationship, space weather and space security.

We conclude with the SPEYE mission, which covers a feld of application where the usage of nanosatellites may bring huge benefts also in support to missions which use platforms whose size is defnitely bigger. The mission aims at demonstrating the capability of a nanosatellite, carried in orbit by a carrier or a bigger satellite, to fy autonomously around the carrier itself, acquiring images through a multispectral vision system for formation fight and autonomous inspection.

Therefore, going back to the stars, also those who can’t distinguish Alcor from Mizar can’t help but appreciate the capability of the “small knight” to intensify the magnitude of its bigger companion. Likewise, the potential of nanosatellites to work in synergy with traditional satellites, and to support and often complete the achievement of the fnal mission’s goals, is unquestionable.

Due to the limited costs and fast development times, nanosatellites are the ideal platforms also for in-orbit demonstration.

SAILS (12U) E.CUBE (12U)

BOREALIS (6U)

SEE (12U)

SPEYE (6U) TASTE (9U+3U) HENON (12U) ANIME (6U) EXCITE (12U) CHIPS (12U)

LiciaCube, Made in Italy in the deep space

by Giuseppe Nucera

The Asi nanosatellite flmed the collision of the Dart probe with the frst asteroid deviated by man

LiciaCube has made it! The Asi nanosatellite has successfully overcome its big challenge in the deep space: immortalizing the frst collision of a probe with an asteroid, 12 million kilometres away from Earth. A small technological jewel manufactured in the Argotec laboratories in Turin, LiciaCube has closely documented the collision between the Nasa’s Dart probe and the Dimorphos asteroid, that happened on September 27th, 2022, at 01:14 AM (Italian time). The Inaf is in charge of the scientifc coordination of the Italian Space Agency mission, in partnership with the Polytechnic University of Milan, the University of Bologna, Parthenope and the Cnr-Ifac. In the frst planetary defence test ever performed by the Nasa, Dart crashed at a speed of over 6 km per se-

Artistic illustration which portraits the Nasa’s Dart probe, on the left, crashing into the Dimorphos asteroid, whereas, on the right, the Asi’s LiciaCube shoots the scene.

Credits: Argotec

cond, with the goal of experimenting the kinetic impactor technique, that is trying to change the orbit of a celestial body through the intentional collision of a probe.

Thanks to the success of Dart, the future planetary defence missions will make this experimental strategy more efective and concrete against any threatening asteroids.

Developed by the John Hopkins University, Dart is in fact the frst probe which has been manufactured to be launched and crash into a celestial body. LiciaCube, for its part, is the only survivor and eye witness of this self-destructive mission.

A body with a 160-meter diameter, the Dimorphos asteroid has been chosen as target although it wasn’t dangerous at all for Earth, since it’s a natural satellite which orbits around the bigger Didymos asteroid. Its nature of a moon within a double asteroid system has, in fact, made Dimorphos the ideal candidate for the frst test through which the kinetic impactor strategy can be assessed. It is indeed easier to measure any changes of its orbit around Didymos, compared to the solar orbit of an independent asteroid.

The Dart mission was launched from the Vandenberg base in California on November 27th, at 07:21 AM (Italian time). The Nasa probe, which took of aboard a SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, hosted LiciaCube in its womb. About an hour after the lift-of, Dart separated from the second stage, successfully starting the deployment process of its two solar panels, each of which has a length of nearly 9 meters.

Therefore, the Nasa spacecraft started its long interplanetary journey, which lasted nearly ten months and whose destination was the Didymos binary system, by carrying LiciaCube. As a matter of fact, the Nasa had initially designed Dart without the Italian CubeSat, expecting to observe the efect of the collision with Earth-based telescopes or from the terrestrial orbit. Later on, LiciaCube was chosen by the U.S. agency to be embedded into the Dart mission and facilitate the testimony of the cosmic collision. As big as a boot box, thanks to its small size the Italian nanosatellite was able to take the space journey within the Nasa probe, which instead has the same size as a fridge.

The Asi CubeSat, which weighs about 13 kilograms, was then released on September 12th, at 01:14AM (Italian time), nearly 15 days before the expected collision with Dimorphos. The detachment phase left the LiciaCube team with bated breath for 50 intense minutes, waiting for the signal lock with the Italian technology, which happened at 02.04 AM. After the detachment, the Dart probe recovered its pre-release structure to continue its journey, whereas the Argotec and the University of Bologna team, in charge of LiciaCube’s navigation, and the Asi team continued to communicate overnight with the Italian small satellite through the Deep Space Network, the network of Nasa radio antennas which supports interplanetary space missions.

Capable of independently navigating and operating in the deep space, once detached from the Nasa probe LiciaCube has to all efects become the protagonist of the frst deep space mission autonomously developed and managed by an Italian team. Therefore, LiciaCube is our frst interplanetary probe.

Once released, the Italian nanosatellite entered the “hottest” phase of its mission, with the in-fight calibration and navigation operations towards the optimal approach path from which to observe, closely but in safety, Dart’s collision with the Dimorphos asteroid.

In this self-navigation endeavour in the deep space, the biggest technological challenge for LiciaCube was not to lose track of its path and target, by using the onboard artifcial intelligence to correct any trajectory errors. Thanks to tracking techniques, the Italian jewel managed to always keep the Didymos binary system in view.

The eyes of LiciaCube, which accomplished this feat, are named Luke and Leia: these are the two onboard cameras which have been developed to perform the fnal task of flming Dart’s collision. The main camera, Leia (LiciaCube Explorer Imaging for Asteroid), is capable of taking high-resolution black and white pictures, with a very detailed observation feld, whereas Luke (LiciaCube Unit Key Explorer) is a wide-feld RGB camera.

Even before witnessing Dart’s collision, LiciaCube looked at the starting point of its big adventure, pointing its equipment towards us and taking pictures of Earth and the Moon at a distance of 12 million kilometres.

Fifteen days after the detachment, LiciaCube obtained its very frst success by witnessing Dart’s collision with Dimorphos at close distance. The collision, which took place on September 27th, 2022, at 01:14 AM (Italian time), was shown almost in real time by the Draco camera, located aboard the Nasa probe. However, since it crashed into the asteroid’s surface along with Dart, the Nasa camera wasn’t able to shoot the actual collision with Dimorphos, including its efects on the asteroid’s surface.

And it’s here that the great value of LiciaCube comes into play: by performing one the fastest fy-bys in history, the nanosatellite passed next to the scene to be observed and managed to show the cone of debris ejected from Dimorphos’s surface, through the images taken by the two cameras, Leia and Luke. In the photographs taken before crossing it, Dart’s target is visible on the top right as opposed to the bigger Didymos asteroid.

The frst images of LiciaCube, historical photographs of the frst intentional collision of a probe with an asteroid, reached the Turin Control Centre just three hours after Dart’s collision, on September 27th, 2022, at 4:23 AM (Italian time). By immortalising the debris ejected from the asteroid’s surface, these images show like a fash of light the cloud of dust generated

The Dimorphos asteroid seen from the Draco camera aboard the DART probe, 11 seconds before collision. This image, taken at a distance of 68 kilometres, has been the last one to include the whole of Dimorphos in Draco’s visual feld.

Credits: Nasa/ Johns Hopkins Apl

Image taken from LiciaCube’s Luke camera, where we can see the Didymos asteroid below and the its Moon Dimorphos above. In this image, taken at a distance of 56.7 km, we can clearly see the cone of debris ejected by Dimorphos after Dart’s collision.

Credits: Asi/Nasa

by Dart, a fash caused by the cosmic collision between the Nasa probe and Dimorphos and, therefore, witness the collision. These frst pictures have shown the world not only the cosmic collision, but also the value of the Italian nanosatellite technology, considering that LiciaCube’s eyewitness testimony has been a difcult task: in fact, the observation conditions were quite challenging for the Asi CubeSat, which passed next to Dimorphos at a speed of nearly 6 kilometres per second. As if, when travelling on a motorway, we were capable of turning around in the exact moment when two cars collide in the oncoming trafc lane and documenting the accident while it happens.

Image from the Asi’s LiciaCube, reprocessed by the Nasa with different contrast levels to better see the fne structure of the cone of debris coming out from the Dimorphos asteroid. The study on this fow of material will provide further information on the asteroid and the collision process. Credits: Asi/Nasa/ Apl

trajectory on October 11th, 2022, after comparing the observations before and after the collision.

The minimum change to decree the success of the Dart mission had initially been set at 73 seconds; actually, the Nasa has confrmed that Dimorphos has reduced its orbital period by 32 minutes, an outcome which is 25 times higher than expected.

If before the collision with Dart it took 11 hours and 55 minutes for Dimorphos to orbit around the bigger asteroid, it now takes 11 hours and 23 minutes.

Therefore, humanity has been able to change, for the frst time, the motion of a celestial body and this has been proven by the great success of Dart. A clear demonstration that the kinetic impactor technique can be, in the future, a concrete and efective weapon to defend Earth.

To fne-tune this technique, in favour of future missions similar to Dart mission, we must now defne with maximum accuracy Dimorphos’s new orbital period, with the goal of cancelling the two-minute approximation of the estimate which has been made ofcial and shared by the Nasa. To limit as much as possible the uncertainty of such estimate, we must collect more and more information on the nature of the ejected material and, therefore, on the composition and structure of Dimorphos: such elements were mostly unknown before Dart’s collision and LiciaCube’s observations.

However, the frst pictures taken by LiciaCube have documented just the collision of the Nasa probe. In fact, these frst testimonies weren’t enough to understand whether Dart mission had reached its ultimate goal, that is changing Dimorphos ’orbit.

It took nearly two weeks, and several post-collision observations from many Earth-based telescopes, to understand whether man is capable of deviating the trajectory of the celestial body. By observing from Earth the Didymos binary asteroid system, through the Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Goldstone Planetary Radar in California and the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, the Nasa confrmed the change in Dimorphos’

Image from LiciaCube’s Luke camera which shows Didymos below and Dimorphos. Taken at a distance of 54 kilometres from Dimorphos, the image immortalizes the different fows through the cloud of debris ejected from the asteroid, expanding in space.

Credits: Asi/Nasa

This will be made by analysing in detail the material ejected from the asteroid’s surface, that is the cone of debris launched in space after the collision with the Nasa probe. The nature of Dimorphos is hidden behind this large cloud of dust, which will be discovered thanks to LiciaCube’s images at close distance. By reaching a distance of just 55 km, the precious testimony of the debris cone is therefore essential, both to defne the amount of material ejected from Dimorphos’s surface and to understand the physical properties of the asteroid. Finally, thanks to this information we may defne how the backlash of the debris cone, similarly to the air fow coming out of a balloon, has substantially increased Dart’s push against Dimorphos. LiciaCube’s X-ray communication system has the task of transmitting to Earth the 627 pictures taken with the Leia and Luke cameras.

The Asi, through the Space Science Data Center (Ssdc), is also in charge of data management and the Science Operations Center, where the software capable of autonomously managing the data fow has been developed, so that such data could be made available according to an internationally recognised standard, designed to render the Fair (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data, also thanks to the Ssdc’s Matisse webtool. Therefore, the great feat accomplished by LiciaCube in the deep space is the result of several tools and diferent know-hows which have been pushed to the front of the line by our country and have shown the role and the weight that Italy has in terms of planetary defence.

LiciAcube, science and technology in a box

by Giuseppe Nucera

There are several research centres, universities and scientifc teams which have contributed to the historical mission of the Asi nanosatellite.

The LiciaCube nanosatellite, the protagonist of the frst mission in the deep space fully developed and managed by an all-Italian team, is made up of a box full of science, technology and partnership. An eye witness of the Nasa’s Dart mission, which has completed the frst intentional collision of a probe with an asteroid, the success of LiciaCube is the result of the partnership of several experts from the national scientifc community.

The project is managed by the Italian Space Agency and carried out by Argotec; the scientifc team of the mission is coordinated by National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF). Furthermore, the nanosatellite can boast the key contribution from several Italian universities, such as the Polytechnic University of Milan, the University of Bologna, the University of Naples Parthenope, as well as the Institute of Applied Physics "Nello Carrara" of the National Council of Research (Cnr-Ifac).

LiciaCube acquired this image just before its closest approach to the Dimorphos asteroid, and following Dart’s collision. We can clearly see Didymos on the top left, Dimorphos down on the right and the cone of debris detaching from Dimorphos after the collision.

Credits: Asi/Nasa

Their contribution involves several levels, from the technology which makes up the small Italian jewel to the process of transmission and sharing of the images taken at a distance of 12 million kilometres from Earth. Such pictures have immortalized the collision of the Nasa’s dart probe with the Dimorphos asteroid, which took place on September 27th. From a technological standpoint, the Polytechnic University of Milan is in charge of the mission analysis, that is the feasibility study to manufacture the CubeSat based on the diferent needs: among them, the orientation of panels towards the Sun to load during independent navigation, leaving the Leia and Luke cameras free to observe their target, Didymos and, fnally, calculating a suitable release angle to avoid the impact with Dart during the ejection of LiciaCube, which happened two weeks before the collision.

Once released, the nanosatellite was capable of taking advantage of its self-navigation capability, the result of the contribution from Argotec and the University of Bologna. Argotec manufactured the autonomous pointing software, which allowed the CubeSat to identify its bright target, Didymos, through its main camera, Leia, and keep it always under observation, eliminating the remaining star feld by means of a flter and, therefore, avoiding any false target.

The University of Bologna, instead, was in charge of establishing LiciaCube trajectory and studying, along with the Dart team, the data transmitted by the nanosatellite on a daily basis. By identifying the exact location of the CubeSat, it was possible to understand the required trajectory correction manoeuvres.

Three corrections had initially been scheduled in

the 12 days before the collision, and the monitoring showed the last non-required scheduled manoeuvre, since LiciaCube turned out to be on the correct trajectory toward Didymos.

Based on the objectives of the mission, the INAF identifed the requirements for LiciaCube’s two cameras. In addition to the Leia camera, aimed at taking pictures of the detailed characteristics of the asteroid, the institution wanted to carry aboard a second camera, Luke, which has a much larger feld of view (although with a lower resolution). This choice turned out to be essential for the success of LiciaCube, considering the unexpected expansion of the plume, that is the cone of debris ejected by Dimorphos for Dart’s collision.

The Cnr-Ifac is now in charge of comparing the expansion of the efectively generated dust cloud with the initial forecasts, a comparison which will provide as much information as possible on the asteroid’s geomorphological characteristics.

Finally, we should underline the presence of Cots elements, that is subsystems which are used by LiciaCube and are already available on the market. Among them are the X-ray transmitter and the antenna, both of which are ready for space, as well as the solar panels, battery and propulsion system which, instead, have been validated for fight by Argotec. A commercial availability which has allowed the mission to save both time and money.

The diferent know-hows behind the great feat accomplished by LiciaCube are still turning out to be essential, also after Dart’s collision, especially when it comes to downloading the acquired images. In fact, the download from LiciaCube takes place through

the antennas of the Nasa’s Deep Space Network and is carried out by Argotec Mission Control Centre in Turin.

The images are then made available to the Science Operation Center of the LiciaCube mission, located at the Asi Space Science Data Center (Ssdc) in Rome.

When the images reach the Science Operation Center, their processing starts. The images must be converted in the FITS format, that is the standard format for the storage of astronomical photographs, and are coupled with a set of key parameters which indicate, for example, when the image has been taken or the distance of LiciaCube from the target, Dimorphos, and the Sun, as well as the observation angle with respect to our star. All of this is useful information for those who, in the future, will have to analyse the images taken by LiciaCube. The Inaf, instead, has provided the algorithm for image calibration.

As soon as the images reach the Science Operation Center, the images are made available also to the Nasa team, thanks to the automated and synchronized acquisition by both teams.

A few weeks after the collision, the download is almost complete and the LiciaCube team is now ready to insert the images on Matisse, the Ssdc webtool for the research and analysis of space exploration data. The tool, which is now active in the trial version, will allow to display Luke and Leia’s observations by projecting them on Dimorphos ’three-dimensional shape: an extremely useful analysis strategy, to better understand the photographic research on cosmic objects with a non-spherical shape, as in the case of Dimorphos and Didymos.

A body with a 160 meter-diameter, the Dimorphos asteroid has been chosen as target, although it wasn’t dangerous at all for Earth.

The ISS: a springboard for Cubesats

The Italian Samantha Cristoforetti was the frst European female astronaut to perform a spacewalk. Those who followed that historical spacewalk, in that summer afternoon of July, 21st, will remember the main activity performed by AstroSamantha along with the Russian colleague Oleg Artemyev: releasing 10 nanosatellites into space. Yes, because the International Space Station is (also) an optimal launch base, which allows to place Cubesats in low orbit and at low cost. It's an excellent alternative to the traditional release method for nanosatellites, the so-called piggyback, which consists in adding a secondary load aboard a rocket which still has some space left compared to the main satellite. This means, however, that Cubesats are still entirely bound to the launch of the main load, and also that their number can be relatively limited. The release of nanosatellites directly from the Iss, instead, allows not only to reduce costs, but also to let these small mIssions start in an independent manner, and with higher numbers.

by Giulia Bonelli

In the case of Cristoforetti and Artemyev’s extravehicular activity, the release of the 10 Russian nanosatellites for research on radio frequencies happened manually. A practice which is not new in the history of spacewalks: the frst experiments for the manual deployment of nanosatellites from the Iss had already been conducted in 2005.

However, there are also less artisanal methods which, over the last few years, have allowed the Station to fne-tune as a springboard for nanosatellites, thanks to robotic arms. In fact, the Cubesats which arrive to the Iss aboard cargo shuttles (the same ones which carry supplies and useful materials to astronauts) can be deployed in space thanks to specifc ejection systems. The frst of its kind has been installed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in the Japanese Kibō module: it’s the Jem Small Satellite Orbital Deployer, specifcally designed for the release of nanosatellites.

But the actual “launch” of the market of Cubesats released from the Iss started with the frst commercial ejection system, operated by Nanoracks, which already in 2013 had become the frst private company to manage the release of nanosatellites from the Japanese module. In 2014, after receiving the authorization from the NASA and other partner agencies to develop its own Cubesat system, Nanoracks installed the Nanoracks Cubesat Deployer (still in the Japanese module of the station).

The frontier of nanosatellites launches from the International Space Station

Since then, the Nanoracks platform has been an actual gateway to space for those companies which had made the decision to invest in the Cubesat market, but had not been able yet to obtain one of the famous piggybacks on rockets departing from Earth. Among these are also several Italian companies, such as Gp Advanced Projects, a start-up company from Brescia which last January earned quite a record: sending the smallest satellite ever released from the Iss to space. Named Fees2 (from Flexible Experimental Embedded

The Nanoracks Cubesat Deployer, installed in 2014 aboard the Iss, as the frst commercial system for the release of Cubesats. Credits: Nanoracks.

Samantha Cristoforetti’s frst extra-vehicular activity along with the cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, on July 21st, 2022. The pair worked on a few tasks, including the release of ten nanosatellites.

Credits: Esa/Nasa/ Roscosmos.

Satellite 2), this nanosatellite measures just 10x10x3 cm, with an overall mass of 300 grams. Less than a pack of pasta.

As the name suggests, Fees2 is the second satellite produced by Gp Advanced Projects to reach the terrestrial orbit. The initial goal of the company is to test all the components of these small satellite systems, including the mini solar panels which enable its operation. The long-term project is to form a constellation of Cubesats which operate in the context of the Internet of Things.

This is just one of the several examples of the new possibilities ofered by the partnership between public and private sectors in low orbit. A frontier which Nanoracks has recently decided to expand, also through the installation of the frst permanent commercial

Fees2, the smallest satellite ever released by the Iss: size of 10x10x3 cm and mass of 300 grams. Credits: Gp Advanced Projects.

module aboard the Iss: Bishop, whose name is a tribute to its mobility.

Developed in partnership with Thales Alenia Space, which assembled it in its premises in Turin, Bishop was hooked to the Tranquillity Node 3 of the station in December 2020. It has been designed to become an actual additional room aboard the Iss, to be used mainly as a compensation chamber for the passage of payloads from inside to outside, and vice versa. Thanks to its considerable size (1.80-meter height and 2-meter diameter), it allows to carry much heavier and bulkier loads than what had been allowed so far. But that’s not all. One of Bishop’s most interesting perspectives involves the release of nanosatellites: thanks to the bishop of the space home, they now have a new open window on the cosmos.

Pioneers headed to the Moon

Let’s imagine we wish to explore a place which is almost unknown to us, very far from home and from any form of civilization. Furthermore, we know that its environment is hostile to life. A place where we’d like to build an outpost, but not before having identifed the best location, as close as possible to a source of water.

by Manuela Proietti

An adoptable strategy may be to send on ahead a small and highly-specialized team, which may have the task of collecting specifc information on the environment to verify its critical aspects and testing ad-hoc developed technologies, with a view to a subsequent shipment, so that the latter can be more likely to succeed and, as much as possible, free of risks for those who will take part in it.

An image of Capstone while orbiting around the Moon. Credits Nasa/Daniel Rutter

This is the philosophy at the core of the Cubesat missions which, in the context of the Artemis program, the Nasa has planned to send to the Moon. And it’s easy to understand the reason behind this choice. Small satellites are low-cost, fexible and can be developed quickly, as well as being a mix of the latest generation technology, and are turning out to be tools with a great potential also in the feld of deep space exploration. Just think of what has been done by the Italian LiciaCube, from the Nasa’s Dart mission.

And in a context full of uncertainties, such as that of the lunar program, these new tools can play a very relevant role.

The forerunner is Capstone, an acronym for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations

Illustration of ArgoMoon.

Credits: Argotec

and Navigation Experiment, launched on June 28th from New Zealand, aboard a Rocket Lab Electron carrier rocket. As the name suggests, Capstone is actually a milestone because is the very frst mission of the Artemis age and marks its on-feld start. The satellite, weighing just 25 kilograms, will have to test the stability of the Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (Nrho), which is the orbit where the Lunar Gateway cislunar station, a key element of the Artemis architecture, will be placed.

Capstone will be the frst vehicle ever to transit in the Nrho and will remain there for nearly six months, with the goal of assessing whether the power and propulsion requirements for the maintenance of the orbit are consistent with the projections drawn up by the Nasa.

Furthermore, Capstone will demonstrate the reliability of the communications with the ground-based stations and, above all, with the autonomous navigation solutions based on the communication between two probes, by establishing a direct dialogue with the Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance orbiter, which is currently operating around the Moon.

The second shipment of small lunar pioneers is that aboard the Artemis-1 mission: as many as 5 out of the 10 nanosatellites aboard the Space Launch System are specifcally designed for our satellite.

The second shipment of small lunar pioneers is that aboard the Artemis-1 mission, launched on November 16th at 7:47 AM (Italian time) from the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida: as many as 5 out of the 10 nanosatellites aboard the Space Launch System are specif-

cally designed for our natural satellite, starting from the only European passenger, ArgoMoon, an Asi satellited manufactured by Argotec for the Nasa, whose task is to produce images of the mission.

Successfully released from the Icps (Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage) nearly 4 hours after lift-of, on November 17th ArgoMoon had already sent to Earth two signifcant images of Earth and the Moon.

The frst image, useful for payload calibration, shows our planet from a distance of nearly 125000 kilometres. The second one is a portrait of the Moon, an image taken when Orion was located 278500 kilometres away from our natural satellite.

Follow the water is the slogan of Lunar IceCube, a Cubesat developed by the Morehead State University in

Rendering of LunaH-Map. Credits: Arizona State University

partnership with the Nasa’ s Goddard Space Flight Center and Busek Company, designed to “smell” water and other useful resources on the Moon. This will help the future human missions on our satellite, in order to best take advantage of the in-situ resources available on the Moon’s surface.

Still aboard Artemis-1, the Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper (LunaH-Map) is a miniature hydrogen hunter. Developed by researchers and students from the Arizona State University, the Cubesat aims at studying the abundance of hydrogen in the dark areas of the Moon. It will fy over the Moon, up to a 5-10 kilometres distance from its surface, and will build a map of lunar hydrogen on a spatial scale of nearly 10 kilometres.

Also LunIR , the Cubesat manufactured by Lockheed Martin, will fy over the Moon and map its surface.

Image of the lander released by the Omotenashi CubeSat. Credits: Jaxa

However, its goal will be mostly related with the characterization of our satellite’s surface, in order to provide additional data for the assessment of the moon landing sites of the future manned lunar missions.

Finally, Omotenashi, which means “hospitality” in Japanese and will be hosted by the Moon itself: the Cubesat, developed by the Jaxa space agency, will send a 1-kilogram nanolander to the Moon’s surface. This miniature lander will measure the radiations on our satellite’s surface and will study the mechanics of the soil by using accelerometers. Omotenashi (Outstanding Moon exploration Technologies demonstrated by Nano Semi-Hard Impactor) wants to demonstrate that the future lunar landers can have a diferent size and cost.

Image of LunIR. Credits: Lockheed Martin

A full tAnk of CubeSAtS for VegA C

July 13th, 2022: a date to remember for the launcher sector. On that day Vega C, a European rocket designed and made in Italy, took of for the frst time from the Esa’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guyana, with the main payload Lares 2 aboard, an Italian Space Agency satellite for geodetic studies, made by the National Institute for Nuclear Physics on a project by the researchers of the Enrico Fermi Research Center and the Sapienza University of Rome. Its task is to accurately measure the so-called frame-dragging efect, as required by Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

by Fulvia Croci

As well as Lares 2, there’s a lot of fully made in Italy, state-of-the-art science and technology aboard Vega C. Three out of the six Cubesats orbited by the launcher are the result of the talent of our research institutes and small and medium-sized enterprises spread on the national territory. We’re talking about Astrobio and GreenCube, manufactured for the Asi by the Inaf and the Sapienza University of Rome, and Alpha, designed by a company from Rome.

The AstroBio Cubesat (Abcs) nanosatellite is the result of a project coordinated by the Inaf, in partnership with the research group from the Sapienza Aerospace Engineering School and the University of

Alpha satellite: the Alpha satellite before its integration aboard Vega C. Credits: Arca Dynamics

AstroBio satellite: the AstroBio nanosatellite ready for launch. Credits: Inaf/ John Brucato

GreenCube satellite: the GreenCube CubeSat in its integration phase. Credits: Enea

Aboard the opening fight of the rocket are three Cubesats, which have been fully made in Italy

Bologna. AstroBio is a miniaturized laboratory based on an innovative technology, capable of independently conducting bioanalytical experiments in space. Abcs has allowed to test a few innovative technologies, in particular the so-called lab-on-chip, the extreme miniaturization of a terrestrial laboratory.

In more detail, a sealed chamber has been installed inside the satellite. It contains a few reagents, pumps and a set of pipes, a system which allows to move and manipulate liquids and make them react with biological molecules. The aim of the mission is assessing the overall function of the laboratory in a hostile environment, characterized by the presence of energy particles coming from the Sun. The results will be useful to assess the impacts of cosmic rays on the health of the astronauts involved in interplanetary missions.

The second passenger, Alpha, is a cubic nanosatellite which weighs 1.2 kilograms x 10 centimetres, manufactured by a group of Italian start-up companies led by the company Arca Dynamics from Rome. Aboard the satellite is a solar sail, Artica (Aerodynamic Re-entry Technology In Cubesat Application), developed by the Spacemind space department of the company Npc from Imola. The sail has a surface of 2.1 meters and is made in aluminized mylar. Artica ofers an impor-

tant in-orbit servicing task, the possibility to conduct operations on a satellite in space, a key function for next decades ‘missions. The sail acts as a low-orbit air brake and reduces the satellite altitude at the end of its service life, allowing it to perform deorbiting in the highest layers of the atmosphere. Instead, Artica takes advantage of the pressure of solar radiation at higher altitudes, modifying the satellite’s orbit.

GreenCube, the third Italian passenger, is a SmallSat, developed by the Sapienza’s departments of Astronautic, Electric and Energetic Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Born from a project coordinated by the Asi, it also saw the collaboration of the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (Enea) and the University of Naples Federico II. GreenCube is the frst experiment ever which involves growing plants beyond the terrestrial low orbit in microgravity conditions. The core of the satellite is made up of a pressurized chamber, destined to the cultivation of microgreens; inside the chamber, a set of sensors constantly monitors environmental parameters. The control system allows to adjust light, temperature and the distribution of nutrients, to optimize plant growth.

The aim is collecting as much information as possible on the behaviour of vegetables which will be part of the diet of future astronauts in their missions to the Moon or Mars. The SmallSat is fully independent and is equipped with sensors which are capable of transmitting to Earth environmental and plant growth data in response to conditions of stress. After orbiting the satellite, an assessment was performed to check the correct functioning of all on-board subsystems and the internal temperature of the growth chamber was brought to levels which are compatible with plant growth.

Later on, a few commands were sent from Earth, which allowed to start the irrigation process of plant seeds to let germination start. Finally, the controls which took place at the stations of Sapienza’s departments and at the Asi’s Broglio Space Center in Malindi, Kenya, allowed to trace growth.

The Italian Cubesats are joined by a trio manufactured by European research centres, specifcally the French Mtcube-2 and Celest, designed by the University of Montpellier, and the Slovenian Trisat-R, designed by the University of Maribor. Celesta aims at comparing the radiation environment in medium terrestrial orbit and that produced inside an irradiation chamber. The useful load of the satellite includes a RadMon radiation monitor and the Sel experiment, both developed by the Cern in Geneve.

Finally, Mtcube-2 and Trisat-R deal with measuring the efects of radiations on diferent types of electronic memories in space.

greenCube is the frst plant cultivation experiment beyond the terrestrial low orbit in microgravity conditions.

See under “Mini”

Their mass is lower than 500 kilograms, they’re used in several types of missions and distinguish themselves for their reduced cost: these are the main features of small satellites, tools which are more and more at the heart of the programs of space institutions (including the Italian Space Agency) and involve major scientifc, technological and commercial developments.

by Valeria Guarneri

In fact, miniature satellites have several advantages. Among them, we can mention: a substantial reduction of mission development times and their low-cost accomplishment, the development of new mission architectures and innovative technologies, as well as the capacity of turning to a wide audience of users/ stakeholders with a wide range of products and applications.

The family of satellites is wide, with several categories which deserve a handbook, a sort of Wikipedia on the topic of Smallsats. The distinguishing element of the several subsets is their diferent mass.

Let’s start with minisatellites, the “big ones” of the family. With this term, we refer to satellites whose

Classifcation of small satellites. Credits:Nasa/Asi

A practical guide to mini satellites: small, but just in size.

The relevant role played by the Italian Space Agency in this sector

mass is between 100 and 500 kilograms, an already signifcant reduction compared to traditional satellites, which can reach up to a few tons of weight. For example, the PLATINO satellite, which the Italian Space Agency is developing along with a consortium of Italian companies, belongs to this category.

Continuing in decreasing order, we meet microsatellites, whose weight is lower than 100 kilograms: there’s no univocally defned value for the minimum limit. In fact, over the years their complexity has signifcantly increased and this value has subsequently been adjusted, switching from 10 to 25 kilograms.

Those satellites whose mass ranges from 1 to 10 kilograms, or 25 kilograms in case this value is used as the lower limit of the previous category, are defned as nanosatellites

Then, we meet the representatives of the category whose mass ranges from 100 grams and 1 kilogram: picosatellites

Femtosatellites are the smallest ones in their category: in this case, their mass is lower than 100 grams.

The satellites belonging to the last four categories are often used in constellations or formations and may need the support of a bigger satellite for communications.

Furthermore, among miniaturized satellites we meet a special category: Cubesats, which owe their name to their shape and have a volume of 1 cubic dm and a mass of no more than 1.33 kilograms. These devices were born in an academic context: in fact, the purpose of Cubesats was to let students practice in manufacturing miniaturized satellites, which could be a copy of the “real” ones. The Cubesat standard was defned in 1999 by two university teachers: Jordi Puig-Suari from California Polytechnic State University and Bob Twiggs from Stanford University. Cubesats have then taken fight from the university laboratories, and have turned out to be a versatile and cheap tool which has allowed universities, research centres and emerging nations to earn a spot in the satellite market without making huge expenses.

A showcase for small and medium-sized enterprises and national start-up companies, whose goal is highlighting unique growth paths, evolving business models and adaptation and anticipation strategies of the most advanced New Space trends, so that the whole sector can draw inspiration from them.

ZOOM ON SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISES

ronments. An important step was the launch, in 2000, of Ofcina Stellare Corp., a company 100% controlled by Ofcina Stellare and headquartered in the United States, one of the strategic markets for scientifc research and new technologies for communications, space and defence. More recently, an agreement has been signed for the acquisition of Ofcina Stellare’s shares by Satellogic Inc., a global leader in the acquisition of high and very-high resolution images.

OFFICINA STELLARE, FROM START-UP COMPANY TO VERTICAL INTEGRATOR

by Silvia Ciccarelli

Born in 2009, in just 13 years Ofcina Stellare has become a global leader in the design, development and supply of complex opto-mechanical systems and tools for terrestrial, aerospace and space applications.

In 2019, the need to increase production capacity and strengthen its position in foreign markets led the company to the decision of embarking on the path towards stock exchange listing. After nearly 3 years, this choice has proven to be a winning initiative, because it allows to parametrize the gathering of resources based on the development perspectives and expected opportunities in a longer timeframe.

In the age of the New Space Economy, development and production speed, risk management and price-performance ratio have been optimized through a vertical integration strategy, aimed at the internalization of the design, production and integration stages and test campaigns of products. The internal management capability of all the value chain processes requires continuous investments and is recognized by Ofcina Stellare as one of the key points of diferentiation for the success of its own journey. Thanks to this strategy, in a few years the company has grown constantly, also by taking advantage of the potential deriving from a wide penetration in the international scientifc envi-

In the national context, the partnership with institutions has gone hand in hand with the growth of the company, also due to the increased visibility obtained thanks to stock exchange listing. Ofcina Stellare has recently signed an agreement with the Asi for Earthnext, a compact multispectral nanosatellite designed to produce high-resolution footage of Earth’s surface from very low Earth orbit (VLEO), thanks to an enabling electric propulsion system. Earthnext, a CubeSat manufactured in partnership with the University of Naples Federico II and a 100% Italian production chain made up of small and medium-sized enterprises, falls within the feet of Alcor, the Asi program for nanosatellites where such enterprises and start-up companies fnd an impressive power of expression. Earthnext is the frst important goal reached by Ofcina Stellare with the Asi; an extremely innovative project, one of the very frst in the world which aims at exploring a feld of application, such as footage of Earth’s surface from very low Earth orbit, which is extremely interesting from an industrial and commercial standpoint.

Located in the province of Vicenza, Ofcina Stellare is projected towards the creation of a Space Factory, intended as a place dedicated to the development of new technologies applied to Aerospace. With the aim of facilitating the development of all enabling technologies which are functional for reaching a leadership position, the company also presents itself as a technological accelerator and incubator of innovative startup companies. In 2021, leveraging on its several partnerships, Ofcina Stellare acquired the shares of two innovative start-up companies: ThinkQuantum and Dynamic Optics, which are, respectively, spin-of companies of the University of Padua and the National Research Council. Thanks to the investors’ trust, the company has been also able to devote ample space to Ofcina Stellare Academy, a place where it can host students and initiatives linked to the world of astronomy and Space and where specialized master’s courses will start soon.

Follow Offcina Stellare page in the Italian Industry Online Catalogue, with updated contents and links to company’s offcial channels: https://italianspaceindustry.it/ listing/offcina-stellare-spa/

OFFICINA STELLARE SarCedO (Vicenza)

We’ll do

by Marco Di Clemente

The technological miniaturization process, that is the continuous trend to reduce mechanical, optical and electronic devices, is establishing itself as a dominant paradigm in modern age. Just think of the frst electronic computer, built in 1946 by the University of Pennsylvania, which took up the space of an apartment, weighed 30 tons, consumed 200 Kw and had a derisive calculating capacity compared with a modern smartphone. As it has already happened in several technological sectors, such as consumer electronics (mobile phones, TVs or other commonly used devices), also in the feld of space we have witnessed, in recent years, a process of signifcant reduction of satellite size, with a (nearly) identical performance to that of traditional satellites. How did such revolution happen? All of this is made possible by the advance of modern technologies and the miniaturization capacity which benefts from the progress in the feld of electronics, allowing to create onboard units and subsystems which are capable of ofering state-of-the-art performance, despite their reduced size.

Therefore, the diference in size doesn’t allow small satellites to perform nearly the same activities as traditional satellites: they can take pictures, shoot video, receive and send any kind of data and, because of that, they are revolutionising the sectors of Earth observation, telecommunications and exploration.

The need to design satellites with a reduced size and mass is mainly due to the issues related with the maximum launch capacity of a launcher and the goal of limiting and optimizing the costs for the launch and accomplishment of a space mission, but poses signifcant technological challenges in all main systems, such as those for power management, propulsion, attitude control, communication and data processing.

The manufacturing of small satellites can’t disregard the importance of technological developments which allow to create miniaturized, but efective, systems, and in the last few years the Italian Space Agency has focused on that approach, in order to enable the creation of missions based on nanosatellites, minisatellites and SmallSats. In such context, it is worth recalling the development of the Ssms (Small Spacecraft Mission Service), a launch system which, combined with the Vega launcher, allows to launch a high number of satellites with a single launch.

One of the main technological challenges involves the management of onboard power: satellites mainly use solar panels to turn light into electrical energy, but the main problem is related to the limited surface available on which solar cells can be applied. In such context, the Asi is funding the development of lithium-ion batteries which have a very high energy/ mass ratio and, therefore, are perfectly suitable to be used on miniaturized satellites, high-efciency, light

Highly-effective, light and fexible solar cells.

Solar cells.

Credits: Cesi

Miniaturized optical camera of the Argomoon satellite. Credits: Optec

The need to design satellites with reduced size and mass is mainly due to the issues related with maximum launch capacity

great tHings

and fexible solar cells, handling systems of solar panels which, therefore, are capable of optimizing onboard power, by rotating the panel itself in a direction perpendicular to the Sun. In the feld of telecommunications, the most interesting bands are the UHF and

Regulus-50 electric engine. Credits: T4i

S ones in regard to low orbit and the X and Ka bands for deep space satellites. In this context, by taking advantage of its experience and skills, which are unique in the world, in the feld of deep space radio transponders, the Asi has started development projects in partnership with the Esa, in order to manufacture a miniaturized version of the same transponder which will be used for next missions. In the propulsion sector, we must consider the limitations related to the pressurization of tanks, the amount of crammed chemical energy and the use of dangerous materials.

Therefore, there are challenges which can’t be ignored in terms of manufacturing efective miniaturized systems. Also in this case, we can mention the concept of using technologies which are already established for bigger satellites, and optimized and ad-hoc miniaturized technologies for small satellites. In such sector, the Asi has successfully developed and certifed a cold gas thruster, which guarantees high reliability, and is developing versatile and low-cost electric propulsion systems, which are capable of guaranteeing orbital maneuverer capabilities, pointing control and de-orbiting at the end of the service life.

Another important element involves the scientifc tools installed aboard satellites, which obviously depends on the expected type of mission and purpose. In this case, the biggest challenge involves the miniaturization of already established technologies for major satellites, related to the manufacturing of optic, also in the case of observation cameras, of the proximity electronics where the detector is installed and of all the structure which, however, needs to maintain characteristics of thermal and mechanical stability.

Also in this case, the ongoing technological developments aim at creating low-consumption systems which allow, anyway, to obtain high-resolution images from low orbit.

To conclude, miniaturization is, on the one hand, a technological challenge, and the other hand it is an actual innovation opportunity, whereas the technological developments made in the feld of small satellites, if conveniently tested through in-orbit technological validation missions, will bring benefts also to traditional missions, creating a synergy between “big” and “small”. As well as accepting such challenge, the Asi, thanks to its technological development program, is capable of supporting durable and enabling developments for the entire small satellites sector. The path has been set, we’ll do great things.

Space technologieS for a more SuStainable planet earth

by the ASI’s editorial staf

The third generation satellite Mtg -I.

Credits: Thales Alenia Space.

Space technologies are now an integral part of our lives and are helping to develop a new, growing economy, the Space Economy, considered, together with digital technologies, one of the most promising driving forces behind economic growth in our country. Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), is the leading manufacturing company in the space sector at a global level that, for over forty years, has been providing high-tech solutions for Telecommunications, Navigation, Earth Observation, Environmental Management, Scientifc Research and Orbital Infrastructures. It has had the privilege of playing a leading role in the world's major

space missions and today, is a key player in space adventures on a constantly evolving path. Today, more than ever before, space technology is proving to be a valuable tool to improve our view of the Earth, to monitor, analyse and provide solutions both globally as well as on a smaller scale. In recent years, Earth Observation has undergone a particularly signifcant evolution having a major impact on all the diferent sustainability domains. Observing the Earth from space helps us to better understand what is happening to our planet, not only in terms of climate change, the analysis of the seas and oceans and monitoring of the poles, but also soil degradation and deforestation, not to mention more local aspects, such as those regarding precision agriculture. Thales Alenia Space's clean rooms currently house three key satellites in the feld of the observation and monitoring of our planet that are about to be launched on their respective missions: MTG - I, the sophisticated Meteosat Third Generation satellite, a collaboration between the European Space Agency (Esa) and Eumetsat, which is scheduled to be launched by the end of the year, SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography), developed in collaboration with the US space agency Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of Nasa on behalf of the French and US space agencies, also scheduled to be launched by the end of the year, and Sentinel 1 C of the European Copernicus Programme, which is scheduled to be launched by 2023. Space technologies therefore contribute, in various ways, towards a more sustainable planet, with fewer emissions and greater resource optimisation. In this race against time, the enormous amount of data we obtain thanks to satellite constellations is probably, together with Earth Digital Twin technologies, the most powerful scientifc tool available and Space is defnitely a privileged observation point.

StarlinkS and the new frontier of satellite broadband

by Giuseppina Pulcrano

Elon Musk’s recipe for high-speed satellite connectivity

Seventy-seven years ago, Arthur C. Clarke imagined the use of repeaters in geostationary orbit to expand the coverage of terrestrial transmission systems. After 20 years from this article, published in Wireless World, we witnessed the frst successful launches of the Nasa’s Syncom II and III satellites. Today, the Internet via satellite has gone beyond the most visionary idea by 2001: A Space Odyssey screenwriter. Streaming, games, videocalls and Internet services are supplied by miniaturized satellites in low orbit, 3001000 kilometres away from Earth. We’re talking about Elon Musk’s Starlink, whose service is available also in Italy. In the frst days of November, the subscription switched from 70 to 50 euros per month, plus 410 euros for the hardware. The package includes a trial period, at the end of which the subscription can be confrmed or the product can be returned. The Starlink network is active in all fve continents, with almost one million subscribers. The feet operates at 550 kilometres altitude and, with the launch of the 65th batch on October 28th, it reached a total of 3.558 fight units. Musk aims at reaching over 40.000 units in the next few years. The in-orbit antennas, not bigger than half a meter, are mounted on single satellites weighing nearly 260 kilograms. They guarantee a broadband satellite connection between Earth and Space, independent from the terrestrial infrastructure. The connection architecture works thanks to a bidirectional Space/Earth retransmission, which uses the Starlink Gateway Site, a ground-based centre which communicates with the fight unit. Customers receive the kit at home: antenna, base, router, Starlink cable 2.9 cm wide and 22 meter long, a power cable. The phased

array antenna is made up of a single solar panel, capable of orienting autonomously. Studied to be used in any terrestrial environment, it boasts a snow melting capability of up to 40 mm/hour and a resistance to temperatures ranging from – 30° degrees C to 50° C. The average energy consumption ranges from 50 to 75 watts: a low-consumption lamp, consuming 1000 W per hour, costs nearly 20-euro cents. Equipped with autonomous anti-collision systems, they are capable of avoiding the collision with other satellites or space debris. A system which reduces the risk of human errors, ensuring also an outstanding reliability. The navigation sensors autonomously detect the position of stars, the altitude and orientation of each satellite. Equipped with space optical lasers, which are still being tested, these satellites convey data without passing from local ground-based stations. SpaceX’s satellite connection is not limited to Starlinks, but also include Swarm satellites, operational satellites for the Internet of Things (IoT). SpaceX’s Swarm satellites distinguish themselves for their size: overall, they are the smallest satellites present in space, whose size

Starlink network architecture

The image shows the architecture of Starlink’s Internet communication system. The communication is bidirectional: the fight unit communicates with the groundbased centre and the customer. Credits: 3G4G5G

does not exceed 11 x 11 x 2.8 centimetres. They are designed not to take up much space for orbiting, and to reduce also launch costs vs. most satellites. SpaceX claims this cost saving in its commercial policies. As a matter of fact, it’s the only autonomous company in the world in terms of launch and re-entry systems for humans and satellites.

What are CubeSatS

uSed for?

System to support large missions: nanosatellites ofer several services, with as many technological implications for our planet.

Until a few decades ago, this kind of applications would have been unimaginable. Just think that Cubesats were born as a kind of highly-technological toy, which had been originally conceived for didactic purposes. We are in the United States, around the end of the 90’s: Bob Twiggs and Jordi Puig-Suari, two professors from, respectively, Stanford University and California Polytechnic State University, decide to use in class a few small satellite prototypes: the very frst Cubesats.

In those years also Italy, in the classrooms of the Sapienza University of Rome, experiments with Professor Filippo Graziani a program for the manufacturing of academic Cubesats, which later on were funded by the Italian Space Agency. In nearly twenty years, Italian skills have consolidated, with state-of-the-art projects such as the Asi’S LiciaCube nanosatellite, an eye witness of the collision between the Dart probe and the Dimorphos asteroid. Or also ArgoMoon, another Italian Cubesat, aboard the Space Launch System which is part of the Artemis program’s frst mission to the Moon.

by Giulia Bonelli

Small, agile, cheap, versatile and highly innovative. They are the nanosatellites, or Cubesats, satellites with the size of a shoe box, or even less, which in the last few years have been revolutionizing how we conceive access to space.

But what are these miniature satellites used for?

From the Internet of Things to global connection, from In-Orbit Servicing to surveillance systems, from microgravity experiments for pharmacology and material science to the robotic exploration of the Solar

In the last few years, nanosatellites, or Cubesats, have been revolutionizing how we conceive access to space.

Credits: Nasa

But along with the scientifc and technological missions, the applications which are perhaps less known but equally interesting are linked to the services ofered by nanosatellites. You don’t have to go too far: just think of the Internet of Things, populated by those “smart objects” which are more and more becoming part of our daily life: computers, smartphones and tables, but also the objects around us, inside our homes, at work, in the cities, which are more and more frequently interconnected. The nanosatellite constellations can ofer an extremely valuable help in this industry, because they are capable of providing a global connection at low cost, allowing access to Internet also in the most remote areas, which aren’t covered by “standard” telecommunications services. Therefore, it’s an important step towards the reduction of that “digital gap” which is mostly attributable to the lack of economic resources by developing countries, which are unable to equip themselves with a telecommunications structure capable of providing a reliable and cheap access to Internet.

the services offered by the new frontier of nanosatellites

Going back to the Internet of Things, the practical applications of the use of Cubesats in this context range from the monitoring of national infrastructures, such as motorways, railways, bridges and dams to environmental monitoring. In this regard, the Internet of Things service based on nanosatellite constellations may also be a valuable help to counter the climate crisis that we are experiencing, for example by providing information to improve irrigation systems and save water resources.

These services are more efective to the extent that they can count on abundant constellations; in fact, in the last few years, we have witnessed the emerging trend of the so-called nanosatellite megaconstellations, which are relatively quite cheap compared to those made up of bigger-si - ze satellites and are easier to deploy in orbit, with a reduced number of launches. Several of them are already active, including that from the company Spire Global, which ofers a network of over 90 Cubesats for applications ranging from weather forecasts to maritime surveillance and air trafcking systems.

Then there are all the services ofered by the increasingly expanding In-Orbit Servicing sector, which includes a large number of orbital activities such as the so-called life-extension services for satellites which have reached the limit of their energy capacity, the refuelling or deorbiting services or also the active debris removal (Adr) services. The latter are perhaps the most urgent ones, with a view to using low orbit more and more frequently – with a subsequent increase of “space rubbish”. According to the Esa’s 2022 Space Environment Report, there are currently nearly 30.000 pieces of space debris in low orbit. The Esa’s Clearspace 1 mission, which should become operational in 2026, aims at intercepting and capturing a big space debris, and then returning into the atmosphere in a controlled manner. In this activity, the European Space Agency satellite will be assisted by a nanosatellite, named e-Inspector, supported by the Italian Space Agency in the context of one the Esa technological development programs. This Cubesat will have the task of inspecting the debris and provide useful information for its removal to the mother probe Clearspace 1.

The future Esa’s Clearspace mission-1 for the removal of space debris. It will be joined by the Asi’s e-Inspector Cubesat.

Credits: Esa

In-Orbit Servicing of the future: Iperdrone

A “space drone”, capable of conducting extremely accurate in-orbit manoeuvres against a predefned virtual target, with safety requirements which are also compatible with the ISS. It’s Iperdrone, an Italian Space Agency nanosatellite whose launch is scheduled for 2023. It aims at in-orbit validation of technologies which are preparatory to In-Orbit Servicing, including, frst of all, the inspection capacity of the ISS and other low-orbit systems, such as the high stage of the launcher after separation, and subsequently rendez-vous and docking. In the future, an advanced version of Iperdrone may lead to the development of systems for non-destructive re-entry to atmosphere, which would allow to orbit several types of payloads, such as microgravity scientifc experiments, that could be then brought back to Earth, as it happens today for loads destined to the ISS. By doing so, an equally valid and much cheaper alternative would be available.

These, and many more, are the services offered by the Cubesat technology, which allow to make more accessible, versatile and cheaper those applications which are currently used thanks to traditional satellites, contributing also to the great challenge of space democratization.

The CubeSats from the Spire Global constellation. Credits: Esa

DefenDing Space aSSetS

by Andrea Cardellicchio Head of Commercial Development – Linea di Business Satellite Systems and Operations at Telespazio

as interference with inbound and outbound satellite communications (jamming, spoofng, etc.); cyber attacks that target the data itself and the systems that use, transmit, and control the fow of data; threats from spy satellites that enter the range of our own assets to acquire information or details about their construction.

Crowded orbits, natural phenomena and attacks from hostile nations are the dangers that threaten space assets on which the fundamental services for quality of life on Earth and the security of its inhabitants depend.

Today, our most crucial space orbits are congested by an ever-growing population of space debris. According to the European Space Agency, the current number of defunct objects regularly tracked by space surveillance networks is approximately 31,600, but the actual number is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions.

This signifcant amount of debris increases the possibility of collisions, leading to: an increase in operational costs and a decrease in the useful life of satellites, due to the frequent manoeuvres required to avoid collisions, a risk of losing important space resources and associated services; risks for humans in space. The advent of mega-constellations for wideband communications and the so-called democratisation of space lowers the access barriers, exacerbating the situation even further.

Overcrowding of satellites and space junk in orbit could cause a chain reaction known as the Kessler syndrome, a phenomenon in which the amount of orbital debris reaches such a point that it creates even more space pollution, making it difcult or impossible to access space, defnitively undermining the sustainability of the resource.

However, debris is not the only threat to satellites and other fundamental space assets. The more the new space domain becomes strategic in defence, the more competitive space becomes, with our adversaries developing capabilities that can damage space assets in various ways. Among these are kinetic threats, such as a direct attack on a satellite or Earth-based station; anti-satellite weapons launched from the ground (Direct Ascent ASAT), co-orbital ASAT weapons manoeuvred toward or close to a specifc target and attacks on ground stations; non-kinetic threats that can affect satellites even without direct contact (e.g. laser, high-power microwave, etc.,); electronic threats, such

To add to the voluntary damage caused by humans, there is also the risk of accidental damage caused by natural phenomena. In the August of 1972, a series of intense solar storms caused a ground communications and satellite blackout. Fortunately, at the time, there were no human explorers beyond the protective magnetic feld of the Earth. Had the astronauts been inside their modules when they met with the storm, the heavy dose of radiation would have caused acute poisoning. For an astronaut out on a space walk, the event would have been fatal.

Episodes like these reveal the crucial role Space Weather information plays in extra-terrestrial activities. In fact, the changing conditions in the solar system have an impact on space resources and associated services. For example: radio and satellite communication disturbances; impacts on the health of high altitude/ high latitude fight teams; radar interference; impacts on the ionosphere and the consequent deterioration of navigation services and on-board satellite electronics. These threats fall under the umbrella of Space Domain Awareness (SDA), which covers all of the activities aimed at controlling the space environment, including the monitoring of natural

phenomena and tracking of orbital objects. The key elements of SDA are: Space Trafc Management, i.e. activities targeted at avoiding collisions between satellites and space debris; Space Intelligence, i.e. the protection of satellites that provide essential services and gather information to get competitive advantage in the space domain; Space Weather, i.e. detection, forecast and evaluation of solar and meteorological phenomena.

Telespazio’s integrated approach to face these threats is based on consolidated experience in Space Situational Awareness activities. In fact, since the Sixties, Telespazio had been conducting satellite management activities in the feld of collision prevention and detection of anomalies. As well as collaborating with Italian, French and European institutions, Telespazio works on projects that incorporate all three elements of SDA, including important European projects like H2020 Spaceways and EDIDP INTEGRAL. All of these activities would not have been possible without a reliable and constant stream of data. To date, the most widely used technologies are radar and telescopes that gather data on space objects from the ground. Telespazio has invested in Northstar, the frst start-up to consider the possibility of gathering this data directly from space, consequently overcoming the issues of geographical limitations and atmospheric conditions. Northstar constellation will be launched in the frst semester of 2023, with Telespazio acting as the exclusive data and services distri-

butor for European institutions and defence organisations.

Finally, an integrated approach to Space Domain Awareness foresees a single environment covering all three pillars previously mentioned, with multiple data sources and information that can be rapidly accessed by users and operators. By the end of 2022, thanks to the evolution of ease-ground, Telespazio will launch a solution developed for the implementation of the integrated approach: a complete and scalable digital platform hosting algorithms and based on advanced technologies that will allow data fusion from multiple sources. The platform delivers STM, Space Intelligence and Space Weather services in an integrated environment that exploits state-of-theart Artifcial Intelligence/Machine Learning technologies and neural networks.

ON DISPLAY

the book Becoming an astronaut, the reality of a dream

by Paolo D’Angelo

L’unico giorno giusto per arrendersi is the frst novel written by Paolo Nespoli after his three previous works, dedicated to his space adventures. It’s a book that, for those who know the author, may look like an autobiography, although he denies that.

The volume narrates the history of Manlio Santachiara, a recently retired astronaut, and Stella, a brilliant but anxious girl, daughter of Eleonora, a dear childhood friend of Manlio.

The narration, divided in three parts, starts with the casual meeting between the two protagonists in a small village in Tuscany, where Manlio goes to hold a conference in a school and hoping to meet Eleonora, the girl with whom he had established a close friendship in his youth, sharing with her his lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut.

Eleonora had given him the courage and willingness to believe in this dream, and had written the inscription “Il giorno giusto per arrendersi è l’ultimo” (“Te right day to give up is the last one ”) in the book she had given to Manlio when they had separated. After receiving the sad news of Eleonora’s death several years before, and casually meeting her daughter, Stella, Manlio makes the decision of satisfying the request that the woman had made to him in a letter some time before, that is helping the young girl to fnd the strength and courage to go beyond her uncertainties, and the doubts that block her attempts of making her dreams come true.

The central part of the novel, set in Livorno a few months later, narrates the days when Manlio guides Stella in a few physical tests across land, sea and air, the same challenges that the astronaut had overcome

title: L’unico giorno giusto per arrendersi author: Paolo Nespoli Publisher: Mondadori year of edition: 2022 Price: 19,50 euro

The frst novel by Paolo Nespoli has a strong autobiographical favour and encourages to fght against one’s own fears

when he was a raider in the army, during his twenty years of training at the Nasa and in his 12 months of life at the International Space Station.

In the third and last part, the narration shifts to the most difcult challenge to overcome, Manlio’s challenge against a serious disease, which within a short time takes away from him strength and physical energies and pitilessly dampens any expectation for the future.

Once more, the willingness and determination reward, and the novel’s underlying message is targeted at all young people, and is very clear: we must always fght against our own fears and uncertainties, defeat our doubts and recognise our skills to put them to good use, without ever giving up. At least until the last day.

Security is our commitment

Monitoring of strategic data and assets. Predictive and proactive protection from physical and cyber threats. Secure digitisation of processes. Critical communications. These are the technological and operational capabilities that Leonardo offers institutions, members of the public, infrastructures and businesses. 115,000 security events monitored per second, and 1,800 alarms handled every day by the Global SOC (Security Operation Centre). 75 cyber-protected NATO sites in 29 countries and critical communications systems operating in more than 50 countries. Leonardo strives daily to enhance and keep data safe and secure in a world increasingly dependent on it.

SPACE FOR LIFE

WE BELIEVE IN SPACE AS HUMANKIND’S NEW HORIZON TO BUILD A BETTER, SUSTAINABLE LIFE ON EARTH