The event, promoted by Paola Inverardi, Rector of the Gran Sasso Science Institute, Massimo Claudio Comparini, Chief Executive Officer of Thales Alenia Space Italia and Fernando Ferroni, President of the Gran Sasso Tech Foundation, was held in the presence of representatives of institutions, the scientific community and industry.
“Thales Alenia Space is an excellence of the Italian space industry and the GSSI is a higher education school that has acquired great visibility in a short time – said GST President Ferroni – the country needs academic research to meet industrial needs. Similar cooperation models will favor innovation. Gran Sasso Tech is ambitious to become a model of the private-public partnership to better respond to this request from the country.”
“We are in an extraordinary phase to develop highly innovative technological initiatives and projects capable of activating synergies between research institutions and higher education institutes, strengthening the competitiveness of industrial supply chains – said Massimo Claudio Comparini, CEO of Thales Alenia Space Italia – the Gran Sasso Tech foundation fits fully into this context, confirming itself as a great opportunity to invest in the future in line with European and PNRR indications for the benefit of the territory and our country.”
“For the Gran Sasso Science Institute, fundamental space research has always been of primary importance and today, more than ever, represents a challenge to be pursued. In this context, the partnership created with GST aims to give back to the community scientific results and technological advances of the highest value”, declared the Rector of the GSSI, Paola Inverardi.
GST aims to become a reference for the scientific community for developing small satellites and planning and managing research missions in space. The Foundation owns the modular and flexible platform architecture for Mini/Micro Satellite applications based on a Modular and Multi-function thermo-mechanical frame (2-MF/NIMBUS), managed as an “open hardware architecture” capable of encouraging widespread innovation by multiple research centres. Ownership of the 2MF architecture and access to the Thales Alenia Space Italia infrastructures make the Foundation a natural candidate to play a leading role in supporting universities and research centers in developing space science missions. The horizontal nature of space technologies, which lend themselves to applications in various other sectors, enables the Foundation to also engage and specialize in research and innovation in areas adjacent to space.
GST is a partner of the “Space and Earth Innovation Campus” (SEIC), under construction in L’Aquila thanks to funding from the Territorial Cohesion Agency (within the PNRR plan), with laboratories that will operate in “digital continuity” with the system of interconnected Italian space factories. The recent contract signed by the consortium led by Thales Alenia Space with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) also fits into this perspective for the development of the Space Factory 4.0, characterized by process automation and digitization systems to build advanced satellites, in particular in the sector of micro and small satellites which include the Platino and Nimbus families.
The Foundation also trains professionals from industry, research and space agencies in design, innovation, management, and leadership skills in an international context, flexible and open to contamination between different backgrounds, cultures, technologies, and skills.