Skypersonic, a subsidiary of the American group Red Cat Holdings, which will develop the drones used to simulate future operations on Mars for NASA, has an Italian heart. “We have signed a five-year agreement with the American Agency to design and develop two drones for NASA, a rover, software and hardware for simulated missions to Mars,” says Giuseppe Santangelo, founder and CEO of Skypersonic.
Towards Mars
For human missions on the Red Planet, we look at the potential “windows” starting from 2030, until then it will be necessary to accelerate the technologies as much as possible to fine-tune the systems to and from the mission. For this reason, NASA has launched a series of missions that will simulate one-year stays on the surface of the Red Planet, with four crew members in the Mars Dune Alpha within the Martian habitat built at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. During the missions, which begin in September 2022, the crew will conduct simulated spacewalks and flight operations, remotely piloting the Skypersonic’s drones and rover in a simulated Martian environment, Arizona, using the transoceanic remote piloting platform. Dronebox developed by the company.
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The presence in Turin
“Turin – explains Giuseppe Santangelo – has a team of about ten engineers and represents our center of excellence in two reference areas, artificial intelligence systems and technologies for transoceanic flight of drones and remote piloting, with training activities for the pilots in the hangar that Leonardo made available to us ». The Italian Skypersonic team will also contribute to the design of the rover that could be tested, adds Santangelo, “in the area that reproduces the Martian soil set up in the Turin plant of Thales Alenia Space”. Skypersonic arrived in Turin thanks to an initiative put in place by the Municipality to attract foreign companies. “For us it was a fundamental collaboration to establish a research and development nucleus in Italy – adds the CEO – with Leonardo who granted us the hangar in the Corso Marche area, in Turin, for tests and a part of the office building for our collaborators “.
Technology
The uniqueness of Skypersonic’s technology is twofold: on the one hand the development of spherical drones for industrial inspections in tunnels and areas that are inaccessible or dangerous to humans, on the other hand the platform for the transoceanic flight of drones in remote driving mode. Skypersonic drones have an exoskeleton or spherical cage with aerodynamic characteristics, designed to go to areas without satellite coverage. The machines are equipped with sensors and equipped with differently “customized” transmission and control systems, on low frequencies and capable of crossing walls. “We carried out a particular experimentation in Turin – explains Santangelo – 150 meters underground, using a system of wires capable of extending and amplifying the signal”. The second technological area on which Skypersonic experts are working is the remote piloting of the drone, with a non-visible guidance system but in FPV mode, which allows, thanks to the use of special glasses, to adapt to the vision of the camera of the machine. acquiring not only images but also a wide range of telemetry parameters. «What we are patenting is the ability to use the simple internet network to identify the fastest route to connect the drone itself to the pilot’s position. We develop this software in Turin ». The drone itself, explains Santangelo, “has become a commodity, the added value is represented by the functions it is able to perform, among the most innovative there is the remote and real-time piloting that we have developed, with a latency of less than 50 milliseconds and the possibility of remote control. with a simple app ». All these technologies will enter the supply that Skypersonic will ensure to NASA. The entire testing and training phase on drones will be carried out in Turin.