From 'airship drones' to stay months in the stratosphere to the future European Space Rider space capsule, passing from reusable rockets and new materials for the lunar colonies: these are just some of the many research programs underway at the Italian Aerospace Research Center (Cira) presented on the occasion of the National Space Day.
"Space is one of the frontiers of humanity and on a day like today, celebrating the past we find those who created the conditions and the many perspectives that we have before us today", said the president of Cira, Giuseppe Morsillo , opening the conference organized at the Cira headquarters in Capua on the occasion of the Day. Many guests who took turns,presenting the projects that are being developed at the Cira and future ones.
Founded in 1984, the Cira is in a phase of profound renewal, with new programs and infrastructures that will integrate with the works already developed, such as the Vega launcher, built by Avio, and the Space Rider space shuttle of the European Space Agency ( Esa) born from the developments of the IXV return to Earth capsule.
"We are developing a series of laboratories and infrastructures on which it is possible to test everything you need to go, stay and return from space: from the chambers to replicate the vibrations of the launch to the wind tunnel, to the plasma where the conditions of the re-entry into the 'atmosphere ", explained Marcello Amato, director general of Cira, presenting an overview of the center and the new projects: from propulsion, both on electric motors for satellites and reusable liquid fuel rockets, to the materials to shield the radiation needed for the colonies to the innovative space shuttles.
In the field of space flight, then, there is not only Space Rider, the European capsule designed as a courier to carry and carry out scientific experiments in orbit, but also Haps, a sort of drone-balloon that can move freely for months in the stratosphere, at about 20,000 meters, for months.
"A skill that no one has at the moment, a very difficult challenge to win but which can guarantee great advantages", observed Roberto Borsa, Cira's director of innovation and communication.
"Being able to stay in the same spot for a long time, which is impossible for satellites - he continued - guarantees that vast regions can be monitored continuously and with great precision".
