Unipi Team Leader: prof. Giovanni Federico Gronchi, Dip. Di Matematica

The current amount of space debris in orbit combined with the expected increase in traffic due to future mega-constallations will have an unprecedented impact on the space environment, posing a serious question on its stability and resilience to any incident or anomalous event. Although statistically less likely to occur, an asteroid impact would have devastating consequences for our planet. Thus Stardust-R will address the growing need for a sustainable exploitation of space, the resilience of the space environment, the threat and opportunities coming from asteroids and comets and the compelling need for properly trained specialists who can tackle these issues.

The key scientific objectives are: 1) to globally characterise the dynamics of objects around the Earth to define disposal solutions, 2) to correlate spatially and temporally distant events and families of debris to their parent object, 3) to quantify uncertainty in celestial mechanics to accurately predict the probability of impact and collision and quantify the resilience of space systems and environment, 4) to develop AI tools and methods for space traffic management, 5) to define a criticality index for small asteroids to identify the need for exploration/characterisation, the possibility for exploitation and the method of deflection, 6) to develop a new distribution model for small size asteroids, 7) to develop systems and algorithms to explore and land on minor bodies with autonomous nano-spacecraft.

These objectives will be achieved via 15 projects developed by 15 Early Stage Researchers who will be trained in math phyisics, computer science and aerospace engineering to provide effective solutions to make the space environment resilient, space exploitation sustainable, learn more about minor bodies and ultimately protect Earth and our space assets.

Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE United Kingdom

Participants

• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA TOR VERGATA Italy
• UNIVERSITATEA ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA DIN IASI Romania
• DEIMOS SPACE SOCIEDAD LIMITADA UNIPERSONAL Spain
• POLITECNICO DI MILANO Italy
• UNIVERSITA DI PISA Italy
• DEUTSCHES FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM FUR KUNSTLICHE INTELLIGENZ GMBH Germany
• UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID Spain
• ACADEMY OF ATHENS Greece
• DEUTSCHES ZENTRUM FUER LUFT - UND RAUMFAHRT EV Germany
• Faculty of Mathematics, University of Belgrade Serbia
• TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT Netherlands
• HYPERION TECHNOLOGIES BV Netherlands

Partner organisations

• ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS - EIDIKOS LOGARIASMOS KONDILION EREVNAS Greece
• UNIVERSITAET BREMEN Germany
• THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SYSTEM United States
• UNIVERSIDAD CARLOS III DE MADRID Spain
• Arizona Board of Regents United States
• Kyoto University Japan
• EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY France
• AIRBUS DEFENCE AND SPACE LTD United Kingdom
• CENTRE NATIONAL D'ETUDES SPATIALES - CNES France

Start date 01/01/2019

End date 31/12/2022

Duration 48 months

Project cost 3.867.284,52 €

Project funding 3.867.284,52 €

Unipi quota 522.999, 36 €

Call title H2020-MSCA-ITN-2018

Unipi role Participant