A new interplanetary generation, men and women who will not be only ‘terrestrials’ but also capable of living permanently on the moon
– our natural satellite – generating a new lunar economy and then taking the ‘leap’ to more distant planets. At the Italian Pavilion of Expo Dubai 2020 this horizon was traced to the brainstorming “The lunar space economy. The first steps towards an interplanetary generation” organized by the Italian global high-tech company Leonardo with the technical-scientific coordination of SDA Bocconi. To talk about exploration, mining and recovery technologies with potential solutions for a living habitat on the Moon it was a ‘spatial’ parterre. The works – which were held as part of the Space Week of Expo Dubai 2020 – were opened by Leonardo’s CEO, Alessandro Profumo, and the discussion moved between the top management of space agencies, institutions, universities, industries which, together to professional astronauts, they argued about how to create and insert synergies to make the equation 2 + 2 = 5 work.
“With space missions we also improve the quality of life on Earth” began Leonardo’s CEO, Alessandro Profumo, opening the Dubai confrontation. Profumo indicated that space is “an opportunity for entrepreneurs for services, satellite applications or space tourism” that are generated by missions in orbit. And when we return to the Moon, a whole new “commercial ecosystem” will be born in which we must expect that “non-space industries in the mining, energy and oil or gas sectors will also participate, but – Profumo warned – we will need responsibility and protection of the extraterrestrial environment. “.
To indicate Italy’s leading role in space has been the president of the Italian Space Agency, Giorgio Saccoccia, who recalled “very advanced technologies” such as those sent from Italy “to Mars or in the orbit of Mars” and many of which were made by Leonardo. “We are proud of our role” in this phase of space activities and “we want to play a role in this phase” e “ASI wants to invest resources in cooperation with our industry to carry out the new lunar missions” Saccoccia said.
Also NASA administrator Clarence William Nelson spoke at the Italian Pavillon to “thank Italy for an incredibly significant partnership: let’s build our heritage together; we continue to advance scientific exploration for the benefit of humanity; we seek, through our commitment to shared principles, to forge even stronger ties in international cooperation in the space sector “.
At Leonardo’s brainstorming they designed the new spatial scenarios,
the new lunar economy and the new destinations beyond the Earth too Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency, Paolo Glisenti, General Commissioner Italy for Expo 2020 Dubai, Hamad Al Marzooqi, project manager of the Emirati lunar mission, the world-famous designer Giulio Cappellini. The debate was enriched by the experiences of rresearchers from the Mit-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, Inaf and Colorado School of Mines and by professionals from the world’s leading mining company Rio Tinto. On stage they also confronted each other astronauts Hazza Al Mansouri, the first man of the United Arab Emirates to carry out a space mission, and the Italian Luca Parmitano of ESA who has carried out extravehicular missions of exceptional innovation in space.
The return to the lunar surface is a key factor in the development of an interplanetary generation, which will protect humanity on Earth and in the future it may also be called upon to guide us to new places to live in Space. “With climate change and the excessive exploitation of natural resources and of the ecosystems that constitute an enormous challenge for our planet, Space could, in fact, offer fundamental resources to improve, in the long term, life on Earth “observed Leonardo’s experts. Thus, to operate in Space, the humanity is also called to “find new solutions and new technologies” that they might have “important implications for the sustainable management of our planet”. But not only. Seeing as many companies are already seeing potential economic benefits in space exploration.
by Andreana d’Aquino
#Expo #Dubai #interplanetary #generation #ready