ASI Agenzia Spaziale Italiana

LARES lands at Kourou

nosengo — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:57:20 +0100

Time is counting down at the ESA Centre in Kourou. The Italian Space Agency satellite set out from the port of Le Havre, France on 13 October and arrived at the S1B-CSG LARES (LAser Relativity Satellite) Building on 26 October.

The ASI satellite, which will be the payload for Vega’s qualification flight, is a solid tungsten sphere weighing almost 390 kg with 92 mounted retro reflectors. In other words, it is a passive satellite that will be sent into orbit at an altitude of 1,450 km and will become a satellite of the Earth for over 25,000 years, joining the Lageos 1 and Lageos 2 geodetic satellites.

It will therefore be possible to send a laser beam from a station on Earth that will be reflected to the station due to the particular geometry of the mirrors. The time that the laser signal takes to go and come back and its frequency stability allow extremely accurate measurements of a particular aspect of relativity, the Lense-Thirring effect. This effect is the dragging of space time due to a rotating mass, in this case the Earth.

Created by a scientific team based at the Sapienza University of Rome, Lares was built by CGS on behalf of the ASI and is managed by the ASI. The system will take into orbit the ALMASAT mini-satellite, devised and built by a team from the University of Bologna, and nine CubeSats, microsatellites weighing 1 kg each built by various universities around the world.

Lares has various innovative aspects, notably the material used in the construction of the satellite, the retention and release system that is activated electronically rather than by pyro-actuators as is usual on satellites, a new system of fast data acquisition from the sensors on board, derived from Italian technologies used in Formula 1, and a camera that will catch the separation phases of Lares, Almasat and the CubeSats.

The Launch Readiness Review is planned for 18 January 2012, while the qualification launch of Vega is planned for between 26 and 30 January 2012. This first flight will start five missions that aim to demonstrate the flexibility of the system. In fact, Vega was created to compare a wide range of types of mission and payload configurations, aiming to respond to the various requirements of the market.

VEGA’s departure

stagista — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:17:00 +0100

The launch campaign of VEGA (the European Advanced Generation Carrier Rocket) has started. The components of the rocket arrived at the ESA Centre in Kourou on 24 October and the first stage was installed on the launch pad on 7 November. The first lift-off of VEGA is planned for the end of January 2012.

VEGA is a carrier rocket for small satellites up to 1,500 Kg that completes the Ariane 5 family of European carrier rockets for satellites up to 5 or 6 tonnes, and Soyuz for satellites up to 3 tonnes. It is an ESA programme in which Italy plays a leading role. ELV, the main contractor in the programme, is in fact a company made up of the Avio Group (70%) and the Italian Space Agency (30%).

"The arrival of VEGA on the space market has long been an objective of Italy", said Enrico Saggese, president of the ASI. "We have been the third county, after Russia and the USA, to launch satellites into orbit since 1964 and the successes over the years have stimulated national industry, with the fundamental support of the ASI, to build our own rocket for future scientific mission or applications in low orbits," commented Saggese.

Meanwhile valuable new opportunities are opening up for VEGA, it will launch the ESA Adm-Aeolous satellite and the IXV re-entry vehicle, but the possibilities also open in its use launching the ESA LISA Pathfinder scientific satellite. Another four rockets of this type are planned involving a contract recently signed by the ESA, Arianespace and ELV.

VIRTIS reveals the secrets of Lutetia

stagista — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:23:40 +0100

The VIRTIS (Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer) data, taken on 10 July 2010 and regarding the asteroid 21 Lutetia, one of the oldest celestial bodies in our Solar System, have been published in the American journal Science.

The spectrometer, which was created by the INAF (the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics) and financed by the Italian Space Agency, is travelling on board the ESA ROSETTA probe, which left the base at Kourou in 2004 to go "comet hunting".

The double panel above shows the image of the asteroid taken by the eyes of the spectrometer. The panel on the left shows the surface of Lutetia from the closest approach as if seeing it with eyes sensitive to infrared radiation. The red cross represents the position of the north pole. The panel on the right is a map of the temperature on the surface of the asteroid made from measurements of the radiation emitted by the asteroid. The temperature reaches a maximum of about 245 degrees Kelvin, or -28 degrees centigrade.

The approach to Lutetia allowed analyses of its physical characteristics and its chemical composition. From the geological point of view, the asteroid is a complex and extremely ancient celestial body. Analyses of measurements taken by the Osiris camera (the co-principal investigator of which is Cesare Barbieri, from the University of Padua along with the INAF) indicate that some regions of its surface can be dated to around 3.6 billion years, an age that makes it one of the first bodies to populate our Solar System. The age of other areas are 'only' 50-80 million years.

"The ROSETTA probe has brilliantly exceeded the general mission tests with its observation of the asteroid Lutetia. In particular, the VIRTIS instrument (completely with Italian responsibility) has gathered data of great scientific interest," said Barbara Negri, ASI manager of Exploration and Observation of the Universe. "Italy plays a leading role in the ROSETTA mission, because other than the VIRTIS instrument for spectrometry in the VIS-NIR bands, Italy has created another two instruments on the Orbiter: the GIADA (Grain Impact Analyser and Dust Accumulator) and the OSIRIS-WAC imaging camera, in addition to the Lander SD2 system," added the expert.

Another important characteristic of Lutetia is its high density of 3.4 grams per cubic centimetre. This figure was obtained by combining the measurements of mass obtained by the Radio Science experiment, and of volume, determined using the observations of the Osiris camera. A value so high could suggest that in the course of its evolution Lutetia has undergone an internal fusion process due to the heat generated by decaying radioactive materials present in its structure. This phenomenon could have produced the separation of a ferrous nucleus, a mantel and a crust formed from light silicates.

ROSETTA is the Cornerstone mission of the European Space Agency and is part of the Horizon 2000 programme dedicated to the exploration of the minor bodies in the Solar System. It was launched on 2 March 2004. The principal aim of the ESA mission is to carry out a series of detailed investigations on the characteristics of the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet that it will approach in 2014 and escort in its approach to the Sun until the end of 2015. During its voyage, the ESA probe observed Lutetia using the Italian spectrometer while making a fly-by of the asteroid in 2010. The probe closely passed the celestial body at a distance of 3,170 km.

ROSA straightens its antennae

nosengo — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:17:47 +0100

The work of ROSA (Radio Occultation Sounder for Atmosphere), the Italian instrument financed by the ASI and built by Thales Alenia Space Italia for studying environmental conditions on Earth and in the atmosphere has started well. It departed on board the Delta II rocket on 10 June 2011 from the American base at Vandenberg. The payload, which is a sort of accurate ‘global thermometer’, is one of the applications of the Aquarius/SAC-D mission to measure the salinity of the oceans and to understand the links between oceanic circulation, global cycling of water and the climate. This is the fruit of cooperation between the Argentine Space Agency (CONAE), the Goddard Space Flight Center (GPFC) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA.

The preliminary results of commissioning ROSA are positive: the instrument, which uses the technique of the radio occultation to measure temperature, pressure and humidity in the various strata of the atmosphere, as well as record the content of electrons in the ionosphere, is operating in nominal mode with both the radio occultation antennae pointing in direction of velocity and anti-velocity.

Radio occultation is a technique originally developed for planetary observation. It exploits the interaction of electromagnetic signals emitted by navigation satellites, such as those for GPS. It is known that the path of these signals is influenced by the characteristics of the atmosphere: when a signal crosses the Earth’s atmosphere its trajectory is refracted and so deviated according to an angle that depends on various parameters, including the temperature, pressure and humidity of the air. Specifically, an ‘occultation’ occurs when a GPS satellite that is rising or setting behind the Earth’s horizon is seen by another satellite at a lower orbit and detects the radio signals. By knowing the precise relative positions of the satellites in every moment, it is possible to obtain accurate measurements of the indices of refraction of the signal in the atmosphere, from which the values of temperature, pressure and humidity can be derived. ROSA is able to measure vertical profiles of the atmosphere with a high resolution of about 200 vertical metres in the troposphere and 1000 metres in the stratosphere, and with high thermal accuracy (less than one degree Kelvin in the troposphere and low stratosphere). It is necessary to place several satellites contemporaneously for a good description of the atmosphere.

SIGRIS calls COSMO-SkyMed

stagista — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:24:21 +0100

The group from INGV (the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology) turned to COSMO-SkyMed to map the deformations of the Earth’s crust caused by the earthquakes that struck New Zealand’s South Island from September 2010 to June 2011.

The team led by Stefano Salvi presented the results obtained from the ASI/SIGRIS project (the space observation system for managing seismic risk) at the ESA conference fringe 2011. During the workshop dedicated to developments and applications of SAR interferometry, held at the ESA-ESRIN site in Frascati (Rome) between 19 and 23 September 2011, Salvi’s team highlighted a series of satellite images acquired by sensors (SAR). The first of these (top left) shows the seismic sequence that struck the area between Darfield and Christchurch.

On 4 September 2010, by activating SIGRIS, the system monitored the earthquake in Darfield that reached 7.1 degrees on the Richter scale. From these data the INGV team made maps of coseismic movement and models of seismic sources, and using the SAR images produced by the environmental satellite ENVISAT and by ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite).

Luigi Broglio: from Mestre into space

nosengo — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:11:28 +0100

Explora 2011 is taking place a few days from centenary of the birth of Luigi Broglio, father of the aerospace station at Malindi (Kenya). The opening conference took place at the conference room of the Candiani Cultural Centre in Venice at 17:30 on 21 October.

Conceived by EIE Cultura, in collaboration with the Historical Studies Centre in Mestre, the Explora project is dedicated this year to the theme of astronomy and aerospace, commemorating the Italian engineer who, among his many merits, established the School of Aerospace Engineering at the Sapienza University of Rome.

In addition to the event on the 21 October, this year’s events include an explanatory exhibition from 29 October to 22 December, at the Torre Civica in Mestre and a cycle of conferences, in which numerous scientists, historians, journalists and people from the world of business will participate. Furthermore, on 11 November, the day of the anniversary, there was a meeting which included the participation of Riccardo Giacconi, Nobel Prize winner for Physics and the presentation of a book and a film in honour of Luigi Broglio.

First meeting "high-level international platform for space exploration"

stagista — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:49:20 +0100

It has been a “eight days” full of appointments, which ended in Lucca with the Third International Conference on exploration of space.

For the first time some of the main actors of the political-institutional setting linked to a broad field of space related activities are meeting in the beautiful chief town of Lucca. The aim of the conference is to face operational modalities and contents of the new strategies for space exploration, based on the values of both cooperation and coordination.

"The conference has been a huge success – as Enrico Saggese, the president of Italian Space Agency, said – which led all countries to a harmony of targets that will be ratified in the United States in 2013, after the presidential elections that will allow us to evaluate the American Space Agency's strategic choices. " The festival in Lucca started on November 3 with the inauguration of the exhibition titled "Space Week in Lucca" organized by ASI and ESA at St. Christopher’s Church.

The 15th National Conference and Expo ASITA 2011

stagista — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:38:15 +0100

The 15th edition of the National Conference and Expo ASITA (Federation of Scientific Associations for Territorial and Environmental Information) started on November 15th in the monumental setting of Colorno Royal Palace.

The event is an opportunity to meet and exchange for researchers, teachers, professionals, public and private institutions and companies operating in different sectors, such as detection, management and representation of territorial and environmental data. The scientific goal of the conference is to promote the comparisons and elaborations of some specific issues, encouraging a multidisciplinary and integrated vision within the Geomantics.

The Italian Space Agency takes part in the event with a special session on satellite system COSMO-SkyMed, organized in partnership with the e-GEOS company.

The aim of the workshop, on November 17th , is to broaden the knowledge of the COSMO-SkyMed system within the national community of territorial information. ASITA Conference is connected to a technical-commercial expo, in which the ASI is involved, with the aim to establish connections between stakeholders and experts in territorial and environmental technology.

Lucca hosts the 25th Symposium of CEOS

stagista — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:39:01 +0100

First of all, we started on November 3 with the inauguration of the exhibition "Lucca space week" prepared by ASI and ESA at St. Christopher’s Church in the Tuscan regional chief town. But the "main course" will be served on November 8th and 9th, when, by the setting of Lucca Royal College, ASI hosts the twenty-fifth General Assembly of CEOS (Committee on Earth Observation Satellites). The committee has been established in 1984 under the aegis of the G7 with the aim to set out a broad framework of international coordination of earth observation missions.

Enrico Saggese, the chairman of CEOS and of the Italian Space Agency, said: "Twenty-five is an important number in relation to weddings and we think it's a magic number for managing directors too. So, we are resolute to make the Plenary Assembly in Lucca a success which will worthily celebrate this event. The topics are of utmost importance, such as the first steps of the working group concerning the climate, the role which the CEOS is playing in the definition of a global architecture for climate monitoring and the consolidation of the funds towards the GEO project for global observation of the forests along with numerous other initiatives ".

Then, the Third International Conference on space exploration will be held on November 10th at the Palazzo Ducale of Lucca. This year's edition follows those held in 2009 in Prague and in 2010 in Brussels. The two conferences laid the groundwork for the establishment of a mechanism of both international coordination and cooperation. Consequently, the purpose of the meeting in Lucca is to keep on working focusing on topics faced during the first and the second International Space Exploration Conferences, developing new strategies related to the space exploration and sharing opinions about the activities of the platform.

62nd IAC – International Astronautical Congress

nosengo — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:58:34 +0200

Italian Space Agency takes part in the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) 2011 that will take place in Cape Town (South Africa) where the whole Italian excellences in the aerospace field will be showed to the entire world. The event represents an International attraction in the field of research and aerospace technology. The five days of South Africa represent for Italy, for ASI and for the whole national aerospace field, an event of the utmost importance as it is a link towards the edition of 2012 scheduled in Naples where it is foreseen the attendance of more than four thousands delegates coming from everywhere. Italian delegates attending the IAC in Cape Town will thus strengthen the importance of the event scheduled in Naples. It will be a crucial event aiming at stressing the concept that for Italy, for Naples and for the whole Region of Campania the edition of IAC 2012 represents a precious and successful choice under the aspects of excellence, commitment, producing and organizational abilities as well as of warm welcome.

For the event of 2011, ASI has organized a unitary participation aiming at promoting the whole Italian System, to confirm the uniqueness, the skill as well as the competencies of an extraordinary state-of the-art system, technologically competitive and worldwide undisputed, able to provide complete and integrated solutions. It is not only an exhibition space but also a meeting space able to strengthen new bilateral relationships of international collaboration. ASI exhibition area is a real path of identification of competences and activities pertinent to Italian Associations and Federations represented by AIAD, AIPAS, ASAS, of products and services offered by Altec, Avio, CGS Spa, Selex Galileo, Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space, of researches carried out by CIRA.

The four different thematic areas, placed in a long path of documentation and exhibition, show the different successes already obtained and those to be realized.

Science. Italy offers its competencies in the field of technologies necessary for the study and the exploration of space. Our country strongly contributes, since decades, to the biggest international missions carried out in this field. A work which includes the realization of space probes and scientific instruments. Italian scientific instruments, in particular, are present in a large number of US and European probes. Thanks to the experiences and success recently obtained, such as AGILE and GOCE, Italy has gained the role of leader in the future exploration missions such as the one towards Mars – i.e. Exomars mission.

Earth Observation and Navigation. Satellites for Earth Observation plays today a crucial role for the protection of environment, the prevention of natural disasters and the safety of territory as well as of citizens. Italy, in this field, is at the forefront thanks to COSMO-SkyMed, the dual innovative Italian constellation. COSMO-SkyMed is one the largest and most technologically advanced space program in which our country has ever participated and is one of the biggest national investment in the field of space system. Activities in the field of satellite navigation are all focused on GALILEO programme, the European satellite system of new generation in progress and where Italy plays a dominant role.

Space Habitability. The International Space Station (ISS) is the most important and ambitious worldwide cooperation program in the scientific and technological field ever realized so far and where Italy plays a dominant role. More than 50% of the habitable volume of the Station is “Made in Italy”. Our country has not only realized many habitable modules but also engineering and Station operation support services.
Space Transportation: space transportation systems are very complex structures which require a high productive capacity as well as the availability of dedicated ground infrastructures. Their realization requires a wide international and European participation and collaboration. An example of this collaboration is the launcher VEGA, a project where Italy plays a significant role as the main investor.

Rosetta’s long sleep

nosengo — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:15:29 +0200

Finally some rest after seven years travelling: Rosetta goes into hibernation for a beauty sleep lasting 31 months. In fact all the control systems for the European Space Agency probe, the "comet hunter" launched in March 2004 from the Kourou base, have been switched off. Only the on-board computer and some heaters, to avoid system blocks, remain active, while the rest of the scientific instrumentation has already been switched off over the past few months. For Rosetta, which travels in space by using solar energy and the gravitational forces of the bodies that it meets, it is fundamental to economise on "fuel", now that the Sun is further away. This is in order to have enough energy to complete its ambitious mission: the encounter with comet 67-P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. "Rosetta is now alone," said Andrea Accomazzo, Spacecraft Operations Manager of the ESA. "We will monitor it from ESA station 35 m, at New Norcia in Australia, for a couple of days to see if there are any problems, but we don’t expect to receive any radio signal until 2014."

On 20 January 2014, a timer will wake "the sleeping spaceship", a signal will then be transmitted to Earth to announce its reawakening. The mission managers will then spend several weeks warming up and reactivating the space vehicle in preparation for the appointment with the comet in July 2014. "The hibernation is a necessary step to reach the final objective," says Paolo Ferri, Head of Solar and Planetary ESOC Operations, "we are now waiting for 2014, when Rosetta will become the first probe to track the life of a comet as it passes the Sun." Surely Rosetta is one of the greatest Italian adventures in space exploration. During its travels it has already encountered the asteroid Steins, passed by Mars and made three flybys of the Earth to make the ‘slingshot’ necessary for its long voyage towards studying the ‘minor bodies’ of the Solar System. Its last encounter, about a year ago, was with the mysterious metallic asteroid 21 Lutetia. In fact, Rosetta passed 3126 km from the biggest asteroid ever approached by a probe, at an average speed of 15 km per second. So, we must now wait another three years before we can again admire Rosetta in the fullness of its life.

COSMO-SkyMed: agreement with Egypt

nosengo — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:41:01 +0200

Yesterday in Cairo the ASI President, Enrico Saggese, and the President of NARSS (National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences), Ayman El-Dessouki, signed the first agreement of collaboration in space between Italy and Egypt in the field of Earth observation. The ceremony, which took place during the Italian-Egyptian Science Day, was opened by the Italian ambassador, Claudio Pacifico, in the presence of the Italian Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Vincenzo Scotti and four Egyptian ministers, the Minister for Education and Research, the Minister of Trade and Industry, the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Electricity and Energy.

In his presentation, the ASI president showed numerous satellite images of Egypt, taken by the Italian radar system COSMO-SkyMed. Among the ‘assets’ of the Italian system that were greatly appreciated was the fact that the radar data, more than the optical data, allows us to effectively monitor the territory. ASI also participated in a workshop on the use of remote sensing data in archaeology. Egyptologists, geologists, historians and physicists gathered together to explore methods and new disciplines connected to the space data, useful in monitoring an extremely fluid and dynamic territory such as the desert and, in particular, the Egyptian desert, which still remains largely unexplored.

The last ray of a star

nosengo — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:34:41 +0200

This is the story of a star fatally attracted by a black hole, which pulled it in then ‘killed’ and devoured it. Using these terms makes it seem like a ‘Grand Guignol’ news item relating to a human quarrel; however this occurred far away in time and space, in a galaxy 3.8 billion light years away. "At the moment, the only theory regarding the observed event," stated Andrew Levan from the University of Warwick, "is that a massive black hole in the heart of that galaxy attracted a huge star and pulled it apart as the result of the gravitational tide. The rotating black hole then generated two jets, one of which pointed directly towards the Earth."

The extraordinary phenomenon that Levan is speaking about, ‘captured’ by Nasa’s Swift satellite and never seen before, was described in two studies recently published in the journal Science. This is a very rare event, which occurs once every 100 million years. A very intense and long flash was observed, initially classified as a Gamma-Ray Burst, the final act in the death of a massive star.

Endeavour and Vittori return to Earth

nosengo — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:54:05 +0200

After having made 248 orbits around the Earth and at the end of a voyage of over 6 million 500 thousand miles, Endeavour has finally returned to Earth. The penultimate mission of the Shuttle generation finished at 2:35 this morning (8:35 in Italy) when the wheels of the shuttle’s anterior undercarriage touched down onto the landing runway of the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, in Florida. Colonel Roberto Vittori, Italian Air Force test pilot and Italian astronaut of the ESA, who carried out the important Italian scientific mission DAMA (DArk MAtter) of the Italian Space Agency, was on board. During his 16 days in space (along with compatriot Paolo Nespoli, who had been on the ISS since last December and had returned on 24 May) the ‘mission specialist’ Roberto Vittori positioned the powerful antimatter ‘hunter’ AMS02 (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer) on the International Space Station. This equipment was built and run with a decisive Italian contribution thanks to finance from the ASI and the National Institute of Nuclear Physics. The AMS, which is already in operation, will have the duty of intercepting and identifying types of elementary particles that cannot be reproduced with accelerators on Earth. Furthermore, Vittori conducted the twelve scientific experiments of DAMA, which represent part of the joint ASI-Air Force programme, set up to establish cooperation in human space flight. These important experiments, designed collaboration with Italian universities and national research centres, will have important spin-offs in the fields of radiobiology, biomedicine, physiology and cellular biology.

VASIMIR: a propulsion system for the future

stagista — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 12:13:45 +0100

An opportunity to learn new technology and assess the opportunities for cooperation in the field. This is the leitmotif of the event dedicated to the project VASIMIR, an innovative space plasma propulsion concept developed by former NASA astronaut and chief of the Ad Astra Rocket Company, Franklin Chang-Diaz. The meeting will be held on April 5 at 2.30 pm at the headquarters of the Italian Space Agency Viale di Villa Grazioli.

Diaz will be accompanied by Franco Malerba his traveling companion of the STS-46 aboard the Atlantis, the first shuttle mission which involved an italian astronaut. VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Rocket Magnetoplasma) is a technology for space propulsion, high power plasma-based, with temperatures close to that of the Sun.

Plasma is a gaseous fluid, which partially ionized particles are taken at very high temperatures by radio waves and controlled by strong magnetic fields. The use of magnets also insulates the structure of the reactor from heat, which goes well beyond the melting temperature of materials. This high temperature causes the release of gas from the nozzle of the engine at a speed that is far superior to that of traditional chemical thrusters, and with a higher efficiency. The Ad Astra Rocket Company was founded in 2005 to commercialize the technology VASIMR, the project has shown great potential from the outset to predict these experiments aboard the International Space Station from 2013 onward.

STOQ lecture 2010 in Vatican City: David Barrow tells us about the origin of the universe

nosengo — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 10:42:25 +0100

John D. Barrow, Cambridge University mathematician and cosmologist and winner of the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities (2006), well-known for having proposed and developed some years ago with Frank Tipler the theory of Anthropic Principle, will be holding the first STOQ Lecture next Friday. December 10th 2010, at 6.00 p.m. at the Pontifical Council for Culture (San Pio X Hall - Via della Conciliazione, 5 - entrance Via dell’Ospedale - Rome). The conference, entitled "The Origin of the Universe. What Modern Cosmology Tells Us about Our Place in the Universe", will deal with the model of an expanding universe and its consequences for the development of human life. The STOQ Lecture will be presided by Card. Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture. Fr. José G. Funes S.J., Director of the Vatican Observatory, will discuss the Professor Barrow's ideas. Professor Piero Benvenuti from ASI will moderate the event. The event, fostered by the Pontifical Council for Culture and sponsored by ASI, marks the collaboration between the two institutions in the STOQ Project (Science, Theology and the Ontological Quest), following the signing of the agreement for establishing the "Universal Portal of Cosmology".

Italy and Israel: all clear for SHALOM

stagista — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 17:51:06 +0100

''The key to our success is reciprocal trust: we could not exchange our technologies, our know-how and our experience if we were not absolutely sure of the reciprocal trust that exists and will continue to exist between our countries and between our people'': with these words Franco Frattini, the foreign minister, opened the 'Italo-Israeli Science Forum' at the Italian embassy in Tel Aviv on 23 November.

During the meeting, which received warm regards from the Nobel prize-winner Rita Levi Montalcini, the space agencies of the two countries (ASI and ISA) announced to the audience of representatives from Israel’s academic and industrial sectors the agreement signed regarding the SHALOM project. This is a programme to build two satellites with joint technology in hyperspectral Earth observation and will occupy the same orbit as Cosmo SkyMed and will therefore integrate radar observations with observations in the visible infrared and ultraviolet.

Lucca will host the first "International Platform on Space Exploration"

stagista — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 17:58:51 +0100

One of the most ambitious challenges of the immediate future is to promote a strategic guide for space exploration, highly qualified and coordinated at an international level. A need that has become a priority for all stakeholders in the sector, in an area in which Italy continues to want to play a leading role. In fact, Lucca will host the first High Level International Platform on Space Exploration in autumn 2011.

The announcement was made on 25 November in Brussels, on the occasion of the Seventh ESA-EU Space Council, by Giuseppe Pizza, undersecretary of state in the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research. "The city of Puccini, Catalani and Boccherini," said Pizza, attending as a representative of the ESA president, "will host a meeting of extraordinary scientific and strategic value."

Science and philosophy: the universe can be discovered on the web

stagista — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:12:09 +0100

There is nothing to be done. This time at Cape Canaveral they didn’t even wait for the deadline of the briefing set for Monday 29 November: the problems that have caused the series of postponements up until the end of October, and on to the postponement to the window in December, are more serious than predicted. The launch opportunity on 3 December was cancelled. Now NASA says that the first valid date is 17 December, but if the new checks programmed have the feared outcome, a postponement to the January window, or even to February 2011, cannot be excluded. Among other things, this could also make delaying mission Sts-134 inevitable. Sts-134 is the mission that will take the Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori to the ISS, planned, in fact, for 27 February.

''We obviously do not like the delay of the launch,'' commented Silvana Rabbia, ASI MPLM/PMM programme manager, ''given that our activities are completed and that we are ready for the assistance phase in the docking operations and for the successive operational life of the PMM. However NASA’s decision,'' continues Rabbia, ''that the launch cannot proceed unless every technical doubt regarding the vehicle that has to transport equipment and crew to the Station has been dispelled, is also understandable and obvious.''

PMM postponed again

stagista — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:02:30 +0100