space – Politecnico di Milano – Progress in Research

HERMES: optimising design and performance of hypersonic vehicles

Posted on 03/11/202316/01/2024 by admin

Hypersonic flight is currently a topic of great interest for both academic research and the modern space industry. Examples of hypersonic vehicles – i.e., travelling at speeds much faster than the speed of sound – include the capsules for the re-entry of astronauts into the Earth’s atmosphere, reusable launchers, experimental aircraft for high-altitude flight or capsules launched on sub-orbital trajectories for space tourism.

The HERMES project (Hypersonic Vehicles Enhancement via Robust Multi-fidelity Optimisation for the Exploitation of Space), which recently got underway under the coordination of Giulio Gori and Francesco Bonelli from the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology at Politecnico di Milano, aims to optimise the design processes of this type of vehicle.

To optimise the design and performance of hypersonic vehicles, it is important to develop reliable mathematical models capable of providing accurate predictions of the complex physical phenomena that characterise hypersonic flight. This optimisation process is also inevitably hampered by the many sources of uncertainty due to limitations in scientific knowledge in this area. Consequently, a robust approach to the design of new hypersonic aircraft is required; however, this approach currently entails unacceptable computational costs.

Through the exploitation of mathematical models of varying fidelity, the HERMES project aims to develop new, low computational cost methodologies for the robust optimisation of hypersonic aircraft. The integration of information of different quantity and quality makes it possible to complement the available database and develop more efficient methodologies. The ultimate goal is to innovate the design of hypersonic aircraft, improving their performance and flight efficiency and ultimately reducing the cost of vehicle launching and accessing space.

The HERMES project is funded under PRIN 22 programme for Research Projects of National Interest (Project No. 2022YPMRNW).

Launch of the juice mission to Jupiter

Posted on 28/04/202313/06/2023 by admin

On 14 April, at 14:14 Italian time, JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer), was launched from the Kourou base in French Guiana, the European Space Agency probe that will reach the Jupiter system in 2031 to make detailed observations of the gaseous planet and three of its moons: Callisto, Europa and Ganymede.

The Politecnico di Milano is also involved in the mission: researchers at the MetroSpace Lab in the Department of Mechanics, on the Lecco Campus, helped to design of one of the main instruments on board the probe: MAJIS (Moons and Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer), an imaging spectrometer that operates on two different spectral channels, near infrared and infrared. The instrument was built by a French and Italian consortium, (French Principal Investigator, Francois Poulet from the IAS in Paris, with Italian Co-Principal Investigator, Giuseppe Piccioni from the INAF in Rome) with Belgian support; the optical head of the instrument is the Italian contribution.

In particular, the team from the Politecnico led the initial phase of the thermomechanical project, studying a passive cooling system capable of maintaining the infrared sensor at temperatures below 90 K (-183.15 °C) and the entire optical system at temperatures below 140 K (-133.15 °C), even though the satellite will operate at close to Earth temperatures.

The executive design and construction of the instrument were conducted by Leonardo, funded by the Italian Space Agency, under the supervision of the scientific team, within which the Politecnico group will remain active during the flight and operational phase of the mission, first to refine the thermal model of the instrument, using the data collected during the cruise phase, and then to support the planning of the observations.

Photo: ESA – S. Corvaja

LUMIO mission: Politecnico leads phase B

Posted on 07/11/202208/11/2022 by admin

Politecnico di Milano and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed the contract for the development of the Phase B study of the LUMIO mission (Lunar Meteoroid Impacts Observer). After a successful Phase A carried out in 2020-2021, the Phase B has been kicked off on September 28th, 2022, and will last 12 months.

The study will be led by the DART group at the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, and has the objective of consolidating the mission design and the CubeSat platform/payload design.

LUMIO is framed within ESA’s GSTP, and has received support from the national delegations of Italy (ASI) and Norway (NOSA).

The European consortium for the LUMIO mission is constituted by Politecnico di Milano, Argotec, Leonardo, IMT, Nautilus, and S&T Norway.

Our university is leading the consortium and will be responsible for the LUMIO mission analysis, guidance, navigation, and control system, autonomous navigation experiment, scientific elaboration of mission data, and the management of the project.

Argotec will lead the CubeSat system design, Leonardo will be responsible for the LUMIO-Cam payload design, IMT will develop the X-band transponder and the solar array drive mechanism, and Nautilus will design the ground segment and the flight dynamics operations. Moreover, S&T Norway will be responsible for the on-board payload data processing unit design to process the data gathered by the LUMIO-Cam.

LUMIO is a 12 units CubeSat, which means that it has a dimension of approximately 20x20x30 cm with a mass of around 25 kg. The miniaturized satellite will fly on a sophisticated orbit about the lagrangian point L2 of the Earth-Moon system.

The objective is monitoring the far side of the Moon to detect light flashes associated to meteoroid impacts. This is to complement data gathered by Earth-based observatories and to refine the meteoroid flux models hitting the Earth-Moon system. The high frame-rate images acquired by the LUMIO-Cam will be processed in real time and onboard to detect the light flashes due to the impacts and they will be downloaded on ground for further elaboration.

LICIACube witnessed NASA/DART impact test with asteroid

Posted on 27/09/202230/09/2022 by admin

Along night time, September 26-27, the NASA DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft intentionally impacted, at almost 25000 km/h, the asteroid Dimorphos, the smaller body in the Didymos binary asteroid system.
DART represents the first attempt to experimentally verify the humanity capability to deflect potentially Earth-threatening asteroid by driving a space probe to crash into the celestial body at maximum relative speed to shift the natural body orbit.

A crucial role in the mission is played by LICIACube (Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids), the small spacecraft entirely Italian-made, which will go down in history as the first European CubeSat to fly in deep space, far from our protected terrestrial environment.

After being released by DART, last September 12, LICIACube flew by the asteroid few tens of km far, witnessing DART’s impact and avoiding the cloud of generated fragments, taking and recording images at the highest resolution possible, thanks to its two on-board cameras: the newly formed crater and the ejecta plume are targeted, supplying unique and fundamental data to scientists about the small celestial body features and the occurred impact dynamics.
The ASTRA research group researchers, led by professor Michèle Lavagna, Giovanni Zanotti, Michele Ceresoli and Andrea Capannolo from the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology gave a key contribution to this futuristic mission success.

During the past months, they hard worked in defining the LICIACube trajectory from the deployment until the asteroid flyby, while during the last weeks, after LICIA release from DART, they redesigned the crucial orbital manoeuvres to correct the CubeSat trajectory, exploiting the data sent on Earth by the small probe. Throughout the whole project, they worked in synergy with the Italian Space Agency, University of Bologna, Argotec S.r.l. and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory personell.

The maneouvers they constantly worked on and performed by the small on-board engine, where aimed to avoid the debris generated by the impact while optimally pointing the on-board cameras to take the highest number of useful images, which will be later downloaded to Earth, to let the National Institute of Astrophysics scientists, coordinated by Dr Elisabetta Dotto, leader of the mission, work on their postprocessing.

LICIA represents a technological pathfinder and a primacy in the CubeSat arena, as it paves the way for such class of satellites to gaina role even on highly challenging space missions; moreover, LICIA witnesses a successful and profitable collaboration between Academy, Research Center and small enterprise, under the coordination of the Italian Space Agency, confirming the excellence of the technical-scientific competences of our Country and the professionality of our young researchers in an extremely high-profile international arena,
Michèle Lavagna

Credits cover image: NASA – Johns Hopkins, APL – Steve Gribben.png

HYPER-5G: developing improved positioning systems

Posted on 27/06/202230/06/2022 by admin

Precise positioning will undergo exponential growth with the advent of autonomous vehicles, drones, robots and the technological development of smart devices, cities and industries. The transition from the professional to the consumer sphere will necessarily lead to the demand for precise positioning capabilities in both outdoor and indoor, open-sky and urban areas.

Politecnico di Milano is participating in the project HYPER-5G, HYbrid Positioning Engine Running on 5G and GNSS, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), under the Navigation Innovation and Support Program (NAVISP).

The HYPER-5G project aims at studying, designing and developing the algorithms and systems needed to implement a precise positioning engine to jointly use multi-constellation GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) and 5G observations, also exploiting GNSS PPP-RTK techniques.

The project aims to merge GNSS, the state-of-the-art technology for positioning applications, and 5G, the new generation of cellular communication networks, for positioning purposes with the goal of overcoming the limits that individually characterize the two technologies and augmenting the overall performance.

The 5G-GNSS data fusion algorithm planned in HYPER-5G represents a solution for precise positioning scalable to an unlimited number of users with large-scale coverage.

The project consortium includes GRed, algoWatt and Politecnico di Milano, which brings in a multi-disciplinary team:

IoTLab, an interdepartmental laboratory of the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering – DIG (Prof. Monica Nicoli) and the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering – DEIB (Prof. Mattia Brambilla), with expertise on 5G positioning.
Geolab, an interdepartmental laboratory of the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering – DICA, Aerospace Science and Technology – DAER, Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering – DABC, Electronics, Information and Bioengineering – DEIB, Energy – DENG, Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering – DIG, of which Prof. Ludovico Biagi (DICA) brings expertise on GNSS techniques.

The research on 5G positioning is also supported by the collaboration with Vodafone Italia.

HYPER-5G projectproject website

Cover image adapted from © ESA image

Laura Pernigoni awarded a Fulbright Visiting Student Researcher grant

Posted on 11/10/202111/10/2021 by admin

An important opportunity for a Politecnico di Milano PhD student: Laura Pernigoni, a young researcher currently completing a PhD at the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, has been awarded one of the Fulbright Visiting Student Researcher grants set up to offer graduates on a PhD programme in Italy the opportunity to carry out research at an American university.

During the 2021/2022 academic year, Laura will carry out research at prestigious Harvard University, on the team headed by Professor Katia Bertoldi, to study innovative deployable structures for applications in space.

Agreement with Thales Alenia Space for the Space Economy

Posted on 04/08/202111/10/2021 by admin

Thales Alenia Space and the Politecnico di Milano have signed a cooperation agreement for technical-scientific activities and training that meshes perfectly with the national framework for the Space Economy.

Through this impactful scientific agreement, signed by Massimo Claudio Comparini, managing director of Thales Alenia Space Italy, and Ferruccio Resta, Rector of the Politecnico di Milano, a long-term project of strategic collaboration in cutting-edge topics has begun.

Research, innovation, and training will be closely tied to production and the economic context, in which space also becomes a strategic element for the territory through synergy between the university and enterprises, thereby expanding the initiatives already being developed with the National Aerospace Technology Cluster (CTNA) and the Lombardy Aerospace Cluster.

This common road is divided into specific paths: from primarily scientific collaborations aimed at basic research, to joint participation in national and international calls to reach advanced technical/engineering objectives, to the development of highly qualified human capital through the start of doctoral paths and curricular teaching initiatives.

We will welcome the challenges launched by the Space Economy, such as the enhancement of new applications and space-based services, the design and implementation of satellite constellations, satellite Internet, and spatial logistics and operations (maintenance satellites), with a particular focus on new satellite and quantum technologies.

Specific collaborations have already begun in the field of industrial robotics, automation, and the digital transformation of factories, as well as the sectors of satellite assembly, integration, and testing, programmes for colonizing the Solar System (Moon and Mars), and Quantum Technologies.

Since 2020, a Space Economy Observatory has also been active at the university, one of whose founding partners is Thales Alenia Space.

The New Space Economy involves unprecedented technological challenges. Together with the energy and digital transitions, it represents a platform for sustainable development on a global scale. This is why the Politecnico di Milano, which already holds an important position in many areas of science and space technologies, intends to play a primary role.

Rector Ferruccio Resta said.

The cooperation agreement with Thales Alenia Space is fully in line with the long-term vision that sees the university supporting enterprises and serving social needs and Italian competitiveness.

Zonta international’s Amelia Earhart scholarship to Laura Pernigoni

Posted on 20/07/202111/10/2021 by admin

Laura Pernigoni, a PhD student in Aerospace Engineering at the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology of the Politecnico di Milano,has been awarded one of the Amelia Earhart 2021 scholarships.

The scholarship was established in 1938 in honour of the famous female pilot Amelia Earhart, and it is granted by Zonta International to support PhD research by women in Space Science and Aerospace Engineering.

It will further support Pernigoni’s research work, that focuses on self-repairing materials applied to inflatable and deployable space structures.

Producing water from lunar soil

Posted on 01/07/202111/10/2021 by admin

Politecnico di Milano and OHB Italia have conducted a series of experiments confirming the possibility of producing water on the Moon’s surface using a chemical/physical process that extracts oxygen from regolith (lunar soil).

The tests form part of the mission to demonstrate In-Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) on the Moon, a project developed and financed by ESA, the European Space Agency, with the significant contribution of ASI, the Italian Space Agency, for which OHB Italia serves as Prime Contractor. This long-term programme for Man’s colonisation of the Moon involves the on-site use of lunar resources.

The research group, led by Professor Michèle Lavagna, uses a prototype system built and installed in the laboratories of the Department of Aerospace Sciences and Technologies of the Politecnico, drawing on the different skills available at the University and on the system capabilities of OHB Italia.

By feeding the system sand that simulates the polar lunar soil, it has been possible to produce the expected amount of water, extracting oxygen from the oxides present in the minerals that make up the soil of our satellite.

The ability to produce water on site, and therefore oxygen and hydrogen, represents a key step for the next human missions on our satellite, as these are fundamental elements for supporting the life of a crew for prolonged periods of time. This production capacity, moreover, frees future lunar bases from the use of open-loop systems that require continuous supply from Earth, thus simplifying logistics and reducing costs related to the transport of materials.

In 2024 Politecnico is back to Space with ESA

Posted on 15/06/202111/10/2021 by admin

After contributing to Rosetta Mission, in 2024 Politecnico di Milano will be back to deep space. That year ESA, the European Space Agency, will launch the Hera spacecraft towards binary asteroid Didymos, the smallest ever visited object by a space mission: an asteroid of approximately 780 metres diameter, having a tiny moon Dimorphos of approximately 160 metres. After arrival, Hera will release two shoebox-sized satellites, namely CubeSats.

The Department of Aerospace Science and Technology of Politecnico di Milano is part of the industrial team selected by ESA to develop the “CubeSat Milani” onboard Hera. The team, led by Prof. Francesco Topputo, will be responsible of the design of the CubeSat’s trajectory and its GNC (Guidance, Navigation and Control) system. The CubeSat is named after Andrea Milani, professor of orbital mechanics at University of Pisa, who passed away in 2018.

The employment of CubeSats in such mission is extremely ambitious and is a fundamental step towards the future development of low-cost exploration of the Solar System, yet providing high science and technology return. For the first time in space exploration history, the CubeSats ought to be able to operate autonomously, more than 10 million kilometres away from Earth, in the yet unexplored and largely unknown binary asteroid environment.

From the scientific point of view, the CubeSat will provide invaluable insights on the physical and dynamical properties of Didymos and Dimorphos. The binary system will be investigated by collecting data and close-up images near the surface of the two asteroids. In particular, the CubeSat will act as building block to InterSatellite Link, the first interplanetary, intersatellite communication link between Hera and its two CubeSats. The CubeSat will act as a technology demonstrator and will test for the first time innovative GNC algorithms, to support the autonomous guidance, navigation, and control of the CubeSat in deep space. More, the impossibility to have direct communication with Earth ground station, but only through relay with Hera, and its limited propulsion capability, make the Second CubeSat aboard Hera one of the most interesting technological challenges of the incoming years.

Hera is the European contribution to the joint ESA-NASA mission AIDA (Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment), which will be the first ever planetary defense mission. Its goal is to test and validate the planetary defense technique referred to as “kinetic impactor”, which consist in deflecting the orbital path of an asteroid by means of a high-velocity impact.