Space, what stage is Sitael’s Platino project at?
Funded by ASI and the Italian government, the Platino program is an innovative constellation of made in Italy satellites developed by a temporary consortium of companies led by Sitael. Initially the launch of the first PLT 1 satellite was scheduled for the second half of 2020, then postponed to 2021 and now expected by 2023
At what stage is the Platinum project (High-Tech Space Platform) to monitor the Earth?
The implementation of the Platinum programme, funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the Italian government with an investment of over 100 million euros, was entrusted to Sitael, a company of the Apulian Angelo Investments group (the holding company led by Vito Pertosa ) which together with Thales Alenia Space, Leonardo and Space Engineering (subsidiary of Airbus) was the winner of the competitive procedure promoted by ASI in 2017.
“In recent weeks, ESA [European Space Agency] judged Sitael's proposal for the Platino program, a series of minisatellites launched in 2017, to be technically invalid,” reveals today the newspaper La Verità . “There is agitation, even on the part of politicians, to see if a new technically valid proposal can be formulated. If this were not possible, the funds could again be distributed to reliable companies and more qualified projects”, remarks the newspaper directed by Maurizio Belpietro.
Just a year ago the Comint – the interministerial committee that has the task of protecting policies relating to space – under the presidency of the then Minister for Technological Innovation Vittorio Colao had assigned ESA the management of 1.3 billion euros of Pnrr funds destined for Italy. The operation was judged by many insiders as a commissioner maneuver by the ASI presidency, considered inadequate to manage the space funds of the Pnrr.
But is there in fact a rejection of the Platinum project now by the ESA?
From the Italian Space Agency they do not comment, but it should be noted that the Meloni government has just appointed two advisers to the ASI board of directors who have thus gone from 5 to 7 as required by the new statute.
In fact, the Platinum program is late . The launch of the first PLT 1 satellite was expected in the second half of 2020, while the first PLT 2 (which will be the Platinum platform in its nominal standard configuration) by 2022.
The commercial agreement between Sitael, Leonardo, Thales Alenia Space Italia and Airbus with the launch of the Platinum satellites scheduled for 2021 and 2022 dates back to 2020.
But from ASI they remind you that the launch of Platino 1 is expected in 2023 based on the resumption of flights of the Vega-C launcher.
All the details.
WHAT IS THE PLATINUM PROGRAM
The ASI Platino program was created to support, through the use of mini-satellites, a wide range of missions in the fields of Earth observation, telecommunications and science.
The platform is perfectly compatible for launching into orbit via the Italian Vega launcher, from Kourou in French Guiana.
As Spazio 5050 , the ASI magazine explains, “Platinum is a “joker”. It means that the same vehicle model, the satellite, can be equipped with different instruments according to the required functions: Earth observation, telecommunications, scientific surveys.”.
Funded by ASI and the government with 100 million euros, Platino is created by the temporary grouping of companies established by the agent Sitael with Thales Alenia Space, Leonardo and Airbus Defense and Space. Still in the smallsat class, it will make use of lighter equipment, satellites weighing around 200 kilograms.
“Starting from 2017 – recalls Francesco Longo, head of the Earth Observation unit of the Italian Space Agency – we have developed this multi-mission platform, designed to have the right flexibility and to embark numerous instruments. The goal is to increase performance and reduce size”.
THE COMMERCIAL AGREEMENT IN 2020
In June 2020, the Commercial Agreement was signed which regulates relations, in the industrialization and marketing phase of the Platinum Programme, between Sitael (prime contractor), Thales Alenia Space Italia, Leonardo and Airbus. The then undersecretary to the Prime Minister with responsibility for Space, Riccardo Fraccaro (M5s), had commented that the program "involves the ASI which coordinates the project, four leading companies in the sector and the government which promotes a new technological leap, allowing Italian industry to hire highly qualified personnel and start producing and making industry”.
According to the president of ASI Giorgio Saccoccia, Platino "is a versatile platform, with a high technological content and all-Italian, which will allow our industry to offer competitive services in various application sectors of space in the coming years".
PLATINUM 1 WILL TAKE OFF BY 2023
In particular, Platino 1 will have an X-band Sar instrument – i.e. a synthetic aperture radar, a technology in which Italy has excelled for years – and will operate with Cosmo-SkyMed, for example in measuring land movements, such as volcanoes, landslides on mountainsides, but also bridges and buildings.
“This is an important industrial opportunity for products that we are completing and that will be ready to fly in 2023” explained Chiara Pertosa, president of Sitael, at the head of the Space Business Unit, to Il Sole 24 Ore last autumn.
But initially the take-off of the Platinum 1 mission was expected in the second half of 2020, then postponed to 2021 and now expected "by 2023".
THE PLATINUM MISSION 2
Developed with NASA, the Platino 2 mission will instead carry an infrared instrument, dedicated to measuring air quality, particulate matter and fine dust. It is now called Maia (Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols) and is scheduled to take off in 2024.
As ASI explains, "Platino 2 is designed to observe critical areas such as Taranto, Gela, the Po Valley, and cross-reference information on atmospheric particulate matter with statistics on respiratory diseases".
THE CONTRACTS SIGNED WITH LEONARDO FOR PLATINUM 3 AND 4
Lastly, on 23 January, ASI signed two contracts with Leonardo for a total value of around 33 million euros for the development and construction of the high-resolution camera for PLATiNO 3 and the hyperspectral camera for PLATiNO 4. The two optical instruments of the latest generation are the technological heart of the next PLATiNO missions, explained the ASI.
All that remains is to wait for Platino 1 to be put into orbit this year.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/spazio-a-che-punto-e-il-progetto-platino-di-sitael/ on Fri, 17 Feb 2023 14:45:17 +0000.