UPDATE – Politecnico di Torino as a Driving Force in Space Research

The University stars at the International Astronautical Congress 2024 in Milan

Politecnico di Torino proves its prominent role in the aerospace and aeronautics research landscape with a solid presence at the IAC conference, Oct. 14-18

A stage of IAC's Astronauts Chapter will be hosted on Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 3 p.m. in Politecnico’s Aula Magna, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, when a delegation of ten ESA and NASA astronauts will visit PoliTO spaces and meet with students.

TURIN, Italy, Oct. 22, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The International Astronautical Congress (IAC) is the main event on the calendar of scientists and experts in the field of astronautics worldwide, bringing together each year the most advanced areas of science, technology and industry in a week full of meetings, workshops and technical-scientific sessions.

Politecnico di Torino, a driving force for the research on space issues and promoter of the “Aerospace City” project taking off in Turin, plays a starring role in the 75th edition of IAC, which will be held on Oct. 14-18 in Milan (at MiCo Milano Convention Centre), with a strong commitment from its faculty and the presence of the University's excellence in this strategic and rapidly expanding domain.

IAC, which returns to Italy after 12 years, is organized by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) with the support of the Italian Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIDAA) in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and Leonardo.

The motto of this year's edition, “Responsible Space for Sustainability” sums up the commitment of Politecnico di Torino and the organizers of IAC: working in synergy with all stakeholders to develop sustainable solutions for space exploration and its future exploitation, but also making a responsible use of current Earth observation technologies to solve problems related to climate change and improve life on the planet.

Politecnico will be represented at IAC by the conference chairman, Professor Erasmo Carrera of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering-DIMEAS, as president of AIDAA. Professor Enrico Zappino, Executive Project Director of IAC 2024, and Professor Alfonso Pagani, Co-chair of the International Program Committee, will also be involved.

More than 170 faculty members and researchers will be present, with over 320 scientific contributions in a program that includes around 4200 accepted papers. Within the program of conferences on aerospace research, Politecnico di Torino will bring its experience in satellite research and development, Earth observation and telecommunications, joining the main plenary discussions among academic, scientific and industrial stakeholders and policy makers: more than 50 ministers and members of parliament from many European countries and from the rest of the world will indeed be present at IAC, as well as representatives from the European Union and the United Nations.

Politecnico will be present on the over 20 thousand square meters of IAC's exhibition section with a large booth, within which it will show the research activities of about 30 Interdepartmental Centers and research groups, 10 patents and Proof of Concept projects in aerospace, the spin-offs (startups born from Politecnico di Torino research groups) Deplotic, Evolunar, Oris, Mespac and SpaceMotionery. More than 10 startups included in ESA BIC Turin, a European Space Agency incubation program run by the Politecnico's I3P incubator, will also participate with scientific and technological support from PoliTO and the LINKS Foundation. Politecnico will even provide a space where companies can meet with researchers to get important collaborative projects off the ground.

PoliTO will present its space-related activities funded under PNRR-Next Generation EU. The University in fact currently leads the NODES - Northwest Digital and Sustainable Innovation Ecosystem, where it is engaged in the flagship project SPACE4YOU, which aims to create a distributed laboratory to support the development of technologies and solutions for space exploration and new space applications. It also coordinates Spoke 1 - Air Mobility of the National Center for Sustainable Mobility - MOST, for the future of air mobility. In addition, it leads the Space It Up! project, funded by ASI and the Ministry of University and Research, with the aim of bringing together Italian expertise in space science and engineering, putting Italy at the forefront of research on Earth observation and protection, extraterrestrial exploration, artificial satellites and remote sensing. Space It Up! will have its own dedicated booth and many related activities.

The future space scientists will also be the stars of IAC: PoliTO student teams involved in aerospace will be present their prototypes in a dedicated stand. They namely are: ASTRA, CubeSat, DIANA, PoliTo Rocket, PoliTorbital and Icarus. Besides, more than 50 Polytechnic students will attend the conference as volunteers, a unique opportunity to immerse in the atmosphere of IAC and meet aerospace experts.

On Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 3 p.m., the Aula Magna of the Politecnico di Torino (Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24) will host a delegation of ESA and NASA astronauts who, as part of IAC's Astronauts Chapter, will travel from the congress to the city of Turin, to visit its aerospace excellences and meet Politecnico students during an event where they will talk about their experience as scientists and space explorers. Here follows the astronauts’ line-up: Paolo Nespoli, Luca Parmitano, Tony Antonelli, Tuva Atasever, Anthea Comellini, Alvin Drew, Reinhold Ewald, Akihiko Hoshide, Andrea Patassa and Carmen Possnig.

“Politecnico di Torino decided to make a strong commitment to research on space-related disciplines,” emphasizes Professor Giuliana Mattiazzo, Deputy Director for Scientific-Technological Innovation at Politecnico di Torino. “This is a key area for the present and future development of technologies that can have a great impact on our daily lives, with applications spanning from medical, telecommunications and environmental safety to Earth observation, with the aim of studying how to mitigate the impact of climate change. Politecnico also promotes the development of the ‘Aerospace City’ project in Turin, an innovative ecosystem that combines the efforts of industry, academia and research. PoliTO encourages the development of innovative companies in this sector with the ESA BIC program, hosted at the I3P incubator, and with the presence of the Galaxia hub, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti's venture capital fund for space start-ups. Not to mention the strong involvement in large projects funded by the PNRR, such as NODES and MOST, as well as Space It Up!. It is clear that, at the IAC Congress, Politecnico will introduce its leading role on the space research scene.”

For more information:
Press Office LaPresse - ufficio.stampa@lapresse.it

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A video accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5800708b-c30e-4c3b-8116-01bf6acba50b