have you ever turned your gaze
the darkness towards the sky towards the stars
deep or towards the sun the clouds
asking me what is beyond
of our planet questions like this
they have always fascinated me since
little girl and they pushed me though mine
course of study has not always been
scientific type given that I have a
language diploma and a degree in
clarinet pushed me towards precisely
aerospace engineering
so they made me fall in love with it
then chosen as a path of study this
love for space has arrived in
especially at the end of the schools
superior at that time in the life of
a person in whom you must choose that
what to do with your future and together
to it it puts back the awareness of
wanting to dedicate my life to something
of particular of charming able
to test myself to bring out
my skills
already at the end of the three-year degree
I managed to become part of
a project that gave a breakthrough
very important my life or star
along with four other students
in fact, of the University of Padua
managed to devise a mechanism for it
unwinding and rewinding of a
wire in space and this mechanism a
many applications we see
but together maybe one more
fascinating is the most urgent that it is
the problem of space debris
space research has led
in the years to the consequences that they are
often you are ignored but for the
which our generation risks
having to pay a price very much
tall not everyone knows that above ours
heads orbit a very high amount
of objects we talk about tanks for the
empty propellant of satellites no more
working and minor components for
translate everything with a common image
and current if passed in a few years ad
have an uninhabited and iliac
natural landscape to a real one
metropolis of debris introducing
some numbers
we are talking about 18,000
of considerable size of about 750
thousand objects of average size and approximately
connect a coin and millions of
objects less than one centimeter
the real problem is that only 67 per
one hundred of them is working
then the 1100 satellites around the
remaining 94 percent consists of
material that over the years is
been accumulated in space and what time
vague meeting to the side so you can well
understand how risky it is
against one of them and this represents
a very important problem for
current emissions but also for those
future
Now imagine you have one in your hand
peanut and that is more or less the
size of an average debris and of
be able to throw it against another object
at a speed of 35,000 40,000
kilometers per hour one thing of all
days, in short, the effect against this
another object would be comparable not to
that of a car accident or one
shot of a bullet but that of one
grenade
I leave it to your imagination
the thing could bring the impact
against a debris the size of a
then truck with this image well
clear in the head
you can understand the seriousness of the
problem of space debris what
then face a problem of
global involvement of this kind
for a few years now the nasa agency
European space and the community
international have adopted some
rules and procedures to be able to
limit the problem of debris
however these are not enough not
they are sufficient without removal
active debris and then we talk
of the intervention of man
the real problem is how to do this
removing, in fact, activates every mechanism
must have characteristics
details must be technologically
constructible economically palatable e
most important must be a good one
compromised from a political point of view
on an international level , overcome these
three tests
these characteristics must must not
constitute a risk for then the
population on the ground so you understand well
how complex it is to face
this problem
despite this they have been proposed
different solutions in the minds and ne
we are talking, for example, about rieti or sails
but also a little more exotic solutions
in this context fits the
project that I belong to then star
which was designed by five students
of the University of Padua and that you can
see behind me and what time is there
I present starting from your a
left you find Leonardo the Pilgrim
then there are spotted mattia and in the center
our team leader gilberto fats
then red alvise and then I like
hinted star is a mechanism for it
unrolling and winding a thread
in space this mechanism goes then
inserted into a satellite
largest called the mother’s state
that thanks to this thread can give
go and hook this debris
object and then bring it back to the ground
or launch it we say to
the infinite and dold our experience
it began in 2015 when the
professor of systems systems
aerospace of Padova seems to her
Francesconi suggested us to try
one of those calls that every year
the European space agency puts to
available for students
university students to approach them yellow
from the first years to research in the field
space so you can imagine the
our enthusiasm before this
proposal and so it was also born
want to get involved and then
contribute to space research and later
about a year of studies and also some
bankruptcy in 2016
we had the extraordinary news
to have been selected just for
one of these calls limando draw more
artesis that allows you to test the
own experiment in the tower of
fall of breeze that you see at mine
shoulders and that is a structure one of the
structures that are on earth for
simulate the absence condition of
weight of space
as you can see it is a huge tower
that is emptied of the air inside
of which a capsule is launched
containing the experiment with two
mode you are a first mode la
drop mode with which it is left
drop the capsule from the other and with which
approximately 4.7 seconds are experimented
weightlessness or mode a
catapult that is the one of which
which has benefited from the star and that
instead it gives 9.3 seconds access to
weightlessness for not going to ours
experience
us at the time of selection
obviously after an initial period of
total euphoria
we realized we had very little
time to bring what in the moment
selection was a brilliant idea but
as completely abstract to something
then of concrete as foreseen by the
in fact, we had about seven
months from March to October to pass
from the idea phase to the then test phase e
our little experience in the field
However, the research was not certain
help
in fact we were proposing something
of extremely innovative is new and
so there were no books on which
study or past missions to which
lean one hundred percent
thanks, however, the initial input of ours
professor of his doctoral candidates
we are the engineer riccardo mantellato
managed to develop the first ideas ad
get to a concept in no time
final for the design we are there
inspired by a mechanism
the fishing rod is unknown
we then adapted it to the space thing
that maybe a first impression can
seem a little trivial but in reality
what our team has found
to face was a true and
own challenge against years of
study and indeed in the past all
missions that have used children
they had huge mechanisms and a lot
heavy in which thread often occurs
jammed shears goes then carrying
then to the failure of the mission the
our skill, however, was right
to adopt a mechanism
simple and light to the space not
we have never stopped believing we can
to accomplish in spite of everything that there
he helped in the seven months since
anyway the difficulties we have
dealt with were decidedly
many speak for example of
solutions that turned out to be not
winning
or orders that have to be repaired or
poor collaboration with companies with
third parties and funds actually that in
at first they were almost non-existent
and that they even sometimes do
prevented from buying the components
necessary in some way, however, we are
managed to adapt to situations
therefore finding solutions
cheaper alternatives and in a first
now almost at autofinanziandoci
end of September but ours
experiment had to be built in some
way and in the end we did it with
definitely a lot of coffee in body and
even some sleepless nights though
at the end of September ours
experiment was concrete was there in front
to us and then we then flew to Bremen
for two of the weeks that maybe
I’m in the weeks longer
unforgettable of our life
during the first week we had
way of dealing with the technicians and the
experts of the fall tower that there
they gave a lot of advice and status
a board a week really a lot
educational and during which we have
made the last improvements to ours
we then inserted it
inside the capsule you see al
end of the first week then the
our experiment was ready for that
which then would have been the true heart of the
our project
then the week of the launches terna a
double 51 a day this week the
day type expected the alarm early
a general subsidiary
of the experiment and then maybe the
substitution of some component then
there was the insertion inside the
tower and launch at the end of the launch
and the air was then inserted again
inside the tower came
recovered the capsule and in the evening there was
therefore the analysis of the behavior ed
any changes to the launch
following
now imagine to condense seven months
of work of dreams of dreams sometimes
even a bit of despair of hope
in 9 seconds and you can get closer in
what you can get close to that
that was our feeling at the beginning
of this second week and that
red button but now I went ha
pressed and then start the
launch sequence that would have unveiled
if those seven months then they would have brought
to some fruits
here we were inside the tower of
control
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
as you could see in this video
[Music]
as old as you could see in
this video
we are proud to say that ours
experiment has been successful in all
five launches and is a result that has
exceeded even the brightest of the
expectations and left room for
different projects for our future
and in fact we have recently deposited
the patent of our mechanism is there
space for new studies and in- depth studies
there will then be publications and
we are also raising funds for
participate in national conferences
and international for which they have
already selected at the end of everything
I want to emphasize how much each one of them
we have spent energy and dreams for
this project sacrificing many
hours of work and study and
fun thing that not all 23
years nowadays they are willing to
we started off with an idea
completely abstract on a sheet
without funds without really knowing
in detail the object of what
we were creating and without knowing each other and
not even very good among us for
then arrive to be a united team e
with a common dream and therefore we are proud
to have shown that with the commitment the
determination and passion
the results sooner or later in tipino we do not
we know if our mechanism will come
never considered by any agency
space or if the important thing will fly
but it is that each of us has tried and
is still trying to write a
little bit of history and who knows
maybe in a not too distant future
we can say that we have contributed to doing
return space to a free place e
pristine as all of us there
imagine
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
”
Be First to Comment