Asi: record budget for 2023. We leave for Jupiter, aiming for the Moon

2023 for the Italian space is a year of many departures, some physical, some real, towards medium or long-term objectives. According to the president of the Italian Space Agency, George Saccoccia, will be decisive for Italy’s positioning at an international level, in NASA’s Artemis program which will take us back to the Moon. Among highlights there are the deep space missions and they will do universe science, earth observation, the first Italian smallsat leaving towards the end of the year and another Italian constellation of satellites, Iris, which takes shape. New technological challenges are imposed to be financed now, for future years with the use of Pnrr funds and national funds for space, for a total of 2.3 billion euros: “For the first time in many years the budget the national contribution by a lot exceeds the ESA contribution, which also rose a lot” Saccoccia underlined during the meeting with the press. A part, about 800 million, will be managed directly by ESA.

It will also work for build a vehicle to land on the moon and create a communication and positioning constellation for the exploration of our satellite, with other nations, including non-European ones, thus highlighting the role of “space diplomacy”. Work will also start again on Exomars, a “revitalized” mission during the 2022 Ministerial and on new solutions, including business ones, for carrying out maintenance and operations on satellites in orbit (in orbit servicing). With a reflection on still lack of an overall law on space activities.

Aboard Juice, towards Jupiter and its moons

We therefore leave for Jupiter, in the first months of the year, aboard Juice, mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). It is scheduled to take off in April on top of an Ariane 5 rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. Juice is the great and long-awaited European interplanetary mission, destined to explore Jupiter’s “Medici” satellitesparticularly Europa, Ganymede and Callistodiscovered by Galileo in 1610. They are four frozen moons, some of which could hide, under the surface, environments capable perhaps of hosting life in some form in the frozen oceans below the surface.

Artist’s impression of the Juice probe in orbit around Jupiter – Credits: Esa

It will take off in 2023 to arrive near Jupiter eight years later, in 2031. Once at its destination it will begin to study the moons with 11 instruments. The Italian role concerns three of these in particular. Thales Alenia space was responsible for Rime, the radar built in the Rome and L’Aquila plants, developed to investigate subsurface depths of up to 9 kilometres, looking for evidence of the presence of subterranean oceans; the high-resolution multispectral chamber Janus was built by Leonardo in the Campi Bisenzio facilities while the 3GM radio-science experiment was developed by Thales Alenia Space in Milan. Leonardo also produced the gigantic solar panels, 94 square meters in surface, the largest ever built for an interplanetary mission, which will have to power the probe over 700 million kilometers from the Sun, five times the distance of the Earth from ours star.

Euclid, the “dark” side of the Cosmos

In the last quarter of 2023, another big science mission will take off. Euclid, space telescope which will observe the extragalactic sky to take extremely accurate images and measure the spectra of millions of galaxies. The aim is to improve knowledge on how the Universe “moves” to understand more about the two forces that act on visible reality but which remain so elusive: dark matter and energy. Italy is responsible for the general coordination of the ground segment, “the collection and initial processing of data before it is distributed to the scientific community” underlined the ASI president. Italy is also responsible for the design and development of various electronic control and data acquisition subsystems, implemented by the national industry. The on-board software of the two instruments is instead developed by INAF researchers.

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On the Moon and all around

While no one will fly to touch the moon this year, the Artemis program is something that will remain in the background of all space activity between now and the end of the decade. Saccoccia recalled how Italy is aiming for leadership in two important segments of this adventure. There design of a lunar lander, Argonaut, “to give Europe the ability to land independently”, without therefore depending on American resources. A path taken by the ministerial conference in Paris, in November 2022, but whose roles (in particular as leadership, at country and industry level) are not yet defined.

Artist’s impression of a lunar lander – Credits: ESA/ATG Medialab

Italy aims at a leadership “also in the moonlight projectwhose goal is to bring the ability to do communication and navigation from Earth to lunar orbit” observed the president of ASI. It is a constellation to ensure communications and navigation on the surface of the Moon for robots and astronauts who will be exploring in the coming years. “Nasa has asked Europe to have an important role, Italy has a leadership and has pushed together with the United Kingdom for this programme. There are two consortia, one led by Italy (lead partner Telespazio, a company owned by Leonardo and Thales ed) and one with an English guide. Talks are underway with ESA and the United Kingdom to get off to a good start,” said Saccoccia.

One aspect that the president was keen to underline is that of bilateral relations with NASA, parallel to participation in the Artemis program through ESA, with the agreement signed for a contribution to lunar architecture which ensured Italy a place at its own astronaut of the class of 2009 (therefore Samantha Cristoforetti or Luca Parmitano) for a mission on board the lunar space station. And the “space diplomacy” with a role, that of Italy, of “aggregator in the Artemis program, as well as contributing with projects and objects” trying to activate “two-way initiatives with other nations. An example is Japan” where “the Expo will take place in 2025 and we will start a dialogue with the Japanese Space Agency. And we already have a couple of other candidate countries for joint initiatives”.

The president of ASI, Giorgio Saccoccia

Platinum, Iride and services in orbit. But “there is no law”

Italy will try to consolidate its position of great prestige in low Earth orbit, where traffic is starting to be a lot. 2023 will be the year of the debut of the first satellite of the Italian Platino platform: smallsats, minisatellites built starting from a “standard” paradigm, with a weight that fluctuates between 150 and 350 kilograms, designed to accommodate different instruments according to needs of missions. However, the departure of Platino 1 will be conditioned by the availability of the launcher, due to the understandable delays that Vega C will suffer after the failure of the November launch. However, there are still some issues to be resolved and they concern legislation. Italy, like many other countries, does not have a law on space and this, in 2023, is a “gap” that needs to be fixed. A topic on which discussions began in December, during the conference organized by the Leonardo Foundation, on the occasion of National Space Day 2022: “In 2023 I would like to deepen a dialogue with the government to understand if there is the will and capacity towards the creation of an overall law on space activities” said Saccoccia.

Pnrr contracts to be closed

In the agenda of the Italian Space Agency, under the item Pnrr, there are many contracts to be signed that concern various sectors, but the low orbit is among those that, by now historically, are of most interest for the future also from a New space economy perspective. First of all, Iride is the Earth observation constellation whose management (funds from the Pnrr) has however been entrusted to ESA (and which will be completed by 2026), together with the development of new propulsion technologies for the evolution of launchers . All contracts to be signed within the first months of the year.

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The list is long, and starts with the funds invested to design “service” satellites: space tow trucks for in orbit servicing: “In the first quarter of 2023 various activities envisaged by the Pnrr for space will have to be contracted – highlighted the president Asi – on the ASI management side there are different types, one is that ofin orbit servicing: from the Pnrr we have 350 million of activities, a higher budget than what the ESA itself has invested, a sector in which France is also investing. And we’ll also come up with a demonstrator. There is the development of telescopes for the detection of objects that may threaten to fall, smart factories dedicated to the production of future satellites and constellations, to also invest in production capacity and all the part linked to the evolution of Matera’s ground infrastructure, linked earth observation and services. A part invested with Cassa depositi e prestiti to encourage initiatives by new operators and startups for Earth observation services”.