Not just satellites: it is an Earth observation system, the one being worked on in Italy, thanks to the 1,070 million euro funding from the funds of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), and whose satellites will have to be in orbit in 2025. "It is an ambitious project and Italy is the first country in Europe to make this journey", Simonetta Cheli, head of the Space Agency's Directorate for Earth Observation since January 1, 2022, told ANSA Europea (ESA), which is based in Italy, in the Esrin center located in Frascati (Rome).
"Italy will be the first European nation to develop such a system. The Italian government, in the person of the Minister for Technological Innovation and Digital Transition Vittorio Colao, has entrusted the technical support for its implementation to ESA, which - Cheli specifies - will make use of the contribution of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and other national institutions. The system will be implemented by Italian companies ". The project, he continues, "has the objective not only of developing public utility services, but of stimulating economic recovery by favoring the creation of jobs and the birth of small businesses".
Unlike the current constellations of satellites, what is being prepared "is a complex system, which includes satellites with optical and radar instruments, alongside services for institutional and commercial users", continues Cheli. There are eight service groups planned: coastal surveillance, air quality, water resources management, precision agriculture, monitoring of land settlements and landslides, fire detection, support for rescue operations in the event of natural emergencies, such as floods, landslides, fires, earthquakes.
After the agreement signed on December 16 between the Italian Government and ESA, a phase of consolidation is expected in January, with the operational structure at Esrin, and the first contracts can be signed at the beginning of 2023 with Italian economic entities, with attention to small and medium-sized enterprises.
"In any case, it is an open system, which - observes Cheli - can envisage collaborations with other countries".
The pace of work is already intense because, explains Simonetta Cheli, the system, whose name will be proposed by the Italian students, "must be developed very quickly: the entire constellation must be in orbit in 2025 and the services must have reached operational status in 2026, the date on which the project must be completed ".
