The Minister of Scientific Research Anna Maria Bernini visited the CIRA - Italian Center for Aerospace Research - in Capua. A scientific center founded in 1984 that employs dozens of researchers. Recognition of the role and "2024 will be a fundamental year for Italian space research" said Bernini. Maybe CIRA was expecting some news of funding to accompany the new year. Nothing, it wasn't talked about.
Fortunately, for Italian prestige, the City of Aerospace of Turin is taking shape and business on the other side of Italy in recent days. Closes 2023 with a new investment of 3,5 million euros to create the Simulation and Control Center for Lunar Robotic Missions and fascinating prospects.
The structure will be built within 36 months at the latest to comply with the programs of the Italian Space Agency for the next "works" on the lunar soil. In particular, in the Piedmontese city, lunar robots will be built that will be guided from the ground. We start again, therefore, with prototypes in a year that sees various missions ready for launch. It is a sign of scientific normality for NASA, because i programs they cannot be suspended for long. As always, results of enormous value for life on earth will arrive from space.
The new Center was born from the collaboration between the Space Agency and ALTEC, a joint venture company specializing in aerospace and high technology.
Towards Mars speaking Italian
It can never be talked about enough, but Italian aerospace facilities with quality laboratories are among the best in the world. Alongside the fame of astronauts who have become famous, there are centers that collaborate with international missions, achieving positions of excellence. The topic of public funding, as in other scientific fields, is always on the agenda. However, it is hoped that some government will take charge of this in a more satisfactory manner. Full-time employed researchers could be more numerous. On the other hand, Italian talents have always traveled around the world. He was Italian American Rocco Petrone, the engineer of Lucanian origins, who gave the OK to the Apollo 11 Mission with the landing of the first man on the Moon.
The ROCC (Rover Operation Control Center), for example, dedicated to Martian operations and simulations, is the result of research in Italian territory: a cutting-edge machine. In 2024 we will return to explore the Moon seen as a fundamental step towards the conquest of Mars. The ambitious ARTEMIS program has ASI as its first partner, also focused on increasing the Italian industrial supply chain
“The center that will be built in Turin – he explained Theodore Valens president of ASI - is an infrastructure destined to support Italian and European planetary exploration and colonization projects in the coming years".
The Moon will be the test bench to test technologies and prepare for the next challenge towards the Red Planet. The robots that will be tested on the lunar soil will simulate activities to be carried out later on Mars, the navigation of which is being studied by highly demanding programs. In short, the Italian cars will be there. They may not express themselves in Dante's language, but their fathers are our compatriots.
