From a small town in Puglia to NASA in Washington. 36 years old. Three engineering degrees: aeronautics, space, systems engineering. Six languages. A doctorate from MIT in Boston. The only Italian NASA engineer involved in the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the most sophisticated “time machine” ever conceived up to now and costing 10 billion dollars. His name is Giuseppe Cataldo, he has been working for NASA for 12 years. Today he is director of planetary protection for one of the missions that will bring rock samples taken from Mars to Earth. A role that did not exist, created from scratch and entrusted to him.
The special Italian Tech Week
“I work to ensure that these samples we report from Mars arrive safely, protecting the Earth’s biosphere from the potential negative effects that could result from material collected on another celestial body. We bring them to Earth to be able to study them with sophisticated instruments that we could never have on Mars. Some champions may even open 50 years from now when we have better technology. The target? Studying the Red Planet and automatically studying ours, because Mars is a bit like the Earth of many years ago. It probably once had water and an atmosphere like ours, which it then lost. It is not to be excluded that in the distant past there was life here ».
29-30 September
Italian Tech Week 2022, the future not to be missed: online registration is open to participate
by Riccardo Luna
Cataldo arrives at Goddard Space Flight Center in 2009. He is 23 years old. He wins a competition announced by ESA. He is one of two European students sent to the Nasa Academy. 10-week program in the summer. The goal: to train leaders for the American aerospace program. On this occasion Cataldo does research, attends courses, visits laboratories, meets scientists and mentors. After the program, before returning to Toulouse where he is pursuing a master’s degree, he wins the John Mather scholarship, Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 and scientific director of the Webb telescope. Cataldo thus returns to NASA for his degree thesis. Since then, 2010, he has never returned to Italy. Of him the mathematical models that allowed to test the thermal system of the telescope. “We worked tirelessly on this wonderful project. We used an immense vacuum chamber that reproduced the conditions of space to verify that the telescope systems were functioning properly.” Cataldo was also part of one of the testing tasks. “Today the telescope is in space and it is telling us so many things: we have begun to characterize new planets outside the solar system, ancient stars and galaxies. And we are observing phenomena that we have never seen before. It will change the science books.”
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Manuel Agnelli and Achille Lauro at the Italian Tech Week: how to register to see them live
by Ernesto Assante
Child prodigy, Cataldo has always wanted to learn a lot. “I liked studying, training has always been my priority and I did everything to give my best. I spent many nights looking at the stars. I always wondered: what’s out there? Universe? Is it a closed box in which we are or is there something else? “. From night to day, he has never forgotten our Planet. “I spent hours looking at flowers, plants, small animals moving around to learn about the biology of the Planet”.
Passion for science and space, management skills. And almost like an artist, Cataldo plays violin and piano very well. “My story teaches us not to be afraid to dream big. I’ve always dreamed of working for NASA, I certainly didn’t imagine doing it so young. I made my dreams come true. The secret is not to sit around waiting for them to come true. opportunities come from heaven “.
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Towards the Italian Tech Week 2022: stops in Genoa, Turin and Milan
Getting into NASA is very difficult. “Hard selection at the entrance and once inside you have to fight to stay. There are many restrictions for those who are not American citizens. Nobody gives you anything”. Cataldo today does not rule out going home. “Italy is a country that offers theoretical, basic, very solid training, which I have not found even in France or in the United States. This is what allowed me to get to where I am. In addition, we Italians have the ability to look at things with different eyes. There is, however, a problem: the lack of funds for research… “.
Cataldo will be at Italian Tech Week on 29 and 30 September, in Turin. He will tell the story of him and how important space is. “Space exploration allows us to progress from many points of view. For space objectives we develop the technology that we will then use in everyday life. Now the main goal is to go to the Moon and then to Mars”. Renamed the man of the stars, he received the Early Career Public Achievement Medal and the Mentoring Award from NASA. He lives in Washington, where he has just been elected president of the Washington-Maryland-Virginia section of the Foundation of Italian Scientists and Researchers in North America, a foundation that wants to act as a bridge between Italy and the US. “We want to promote the exchange of young Italian students and researchers who can come here to do research, for a thesis or for a doctorate”.
And to all of us he sends an invitation to love our Planet. “It is unique, beautiful, rare. We have to take care of it. I think of all the wars that happen and I wonder why we don’t see how beautiful it is?”.