They are increasingly smaller, but with a concentrate of very high technology, which in turn tends to miniaturize more and more: they are the nanosatellites, a space crowd that represents a fundamental voice of the New Space Economy.
On Earth they do not require the refined tests in huge “clean rooms”, because a small laboratory is sufficient. And also launch costs are low and generally they are sent into orbit as a secondary load: once the large standard satellite is freed, dozens of them can escape from the nosepiece of the carrier rocket. “But not too many – is the specification of the security experts – because in this way we increase the mass of objects orbiting at low altitudes around the Earth”.
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Nanosatellites, the technologies they contain, their applications and their services, were the protagonists of a conference via webinar organized by the Italian Technion Society, with Remy Cohen, executive president, and Nora Alkabes, secretary general: “Our goal is create a bridge between the Israeli technological ecosystem and the Italian academic and business world. Let’s start with a key sector such as Space and then we will replicate this model in areas such as medicine, pharmaceuticals and energy. “Icon of nanosatellites is the project conceived by Pini Gurfil, professor at Technion and considered one of the leading experts in the sector. : “The initiative is called Adelis-Samson – explained the engineer, who is also director of Asri, the Asher Space Research Institute – the first 3 parallelepiped-shaped instruments and surmounted by photovoltaic panels, we sent them into orbit last March 22 with a Russian Soyuz Fregat rocket and they are regularly in operation. We have endowed them with a know-how for the observation of the Earth and the seas “.
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Almost following a rhythmic dance, they exposed their panels to the sun and started pointing the targets: “They are stabilized on 3 axes – added Gurfil – and the ground stations normally used for remote sensing provide us with all data during the orbital trajectory”. Again: “Nanosatellites represent a present that is already the future – underlined Paolo Gaudenzi, of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of the La Sapienza University of Rome, where he is a professor in Aerospace Structures and director of the Master Satellites – They represent a investment in Industry 4.0 and what is known as Smart Revolution “.
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In partnership con ESA, the European Space Agency, and with Thales Alenia Space Italia for the industrial part, Gaudenzi’s team is a leader in smart manufacturing for the large-scale production of nanosatellite constellations: “Like their bigger brothers, they offer the opportunity to the companies that make them to develop many new space services”, for both rich and developing countries, “e there are great opportunities at stake for young people, from educational projects to careers in the most advanced technologies “.
That the opportunities continue to grow was demonstrated by the managers and researchers who crowded the webinar, such as Giovanni Sylos Labini and his Planetek, specialized in the management of geospatial data with which monitor habitats and transform so-called smart cities into reality, and Luca Rossettini of D-Orbit, the company known among the professionals for the Ion CubeSat Carrier that brings satellites into orbit and takes care of their entire life cycle, from conception to decommissioning. Another successful start-up, originally from Padua, is Stellar Project: Alessandro Francesconi has created LaserCube, the device that makes possible the communication of nanosatellites through lasers, while Daniele Pavarin of T4i studies and brings to the market micromotors and high efficiency propulsion systems and Alessio Lorusso of Roboze offers hardware for Space with its products in 3D printed polymers.
These entrepreneurs-designers confronted with the activities of Ofer Gal of Gilat Satellite Networks and Aviv Kanelbaum of Israel Aerospace Industry, two companies that manage a wide range of services for the civil and military markets. At the base are the connections “between Earth and Space”, in a continuous exchange of information that aims at a revolution already underway, although unknown to many: to create a business projected towards other planets and also to protect our increasingly fragile habitats.
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