The English edition of 'Space In our Hands' presented by Telespazio and the Bocconi SEE Lab

The English edition of Space In our Hands, published by Mimesis International, was presented in Milan on 7 March. The book, already available in Italian in a version published by Hoepli, is the result of a project of Telespazio and of the SEE Lab (the Space Economy Evolution Lab of the SDA School of Management) and is dedicated to sustainability, an increasingly hot topic both on Earth and in space.

Written by the American journalist David W. Brown, this book provides a map of technologies and activities that are only apparently far removed from us but that will be central to addressing the most urgent environmental and social challenges of the near future. In addition to Brown's considerations, the volume includes interviews (curated by the SEE Lab team) with internationally well-known figures that offer a complete picture of the research and technologies necessary to make our actions increasingly sustainable.

Luigi Pasquali, CEO of Telespazio, and Simonetta di Pippo, director of the Bocconi SEE Lab (the two authors of the book's prefaces), Gabriele Pieralli, CEO of Telespazio, and the astronaut Paolo Nespoli all spoke during the presentation.

"The book project arises from a question. If it is true that satellites play a key role in combating climate change and monitoring the changes taking place on the planet, how can we neglect looking after the environment in which they operate? Space has given, is giving and will continue to give much to humankind, and it is time to return the favour to make it more and more sustainable".

Luigi Pasquali, CEO of Telespazio.

In addition to Nespoli, some of the people interviewed in the book also participated in the event. Liaising from the United States were John C. Mankins, of the International Academy of Astronautics, who explained the growth prospects of Space Solar Power (the possibility of creating clean energy directly in space); Cynda Collins Arsenault and Victoria Samson, of the Secure World Foundation, who spoke about the current regulatory framework and the future challenges of the space sector; Angel Abbud-Madrid, of the Colorado School of Mines, who addressed the topic of the possible extraction of minerals and other precious elements from celestial bodies.

"Telespazio is engaged in many sustainability-focussed space missions. I am thinking of the great new Italian programme, the IRIS Earth observation programme, under development and established on the initiative of the Italian government thanks to funds from the Italian Plan for Recovery and Resilience (PNRR). But I am also thinking of the European programmes (which involve us in Space Situational Awareness) and Moonlight, whose objective is to enable on the Moon the navigation and communication services that we already have on Earth, and thus contribute to creating a sustainable Lunar Economy".

Gabriele Pieralli, COO of Telespazio.

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