- December 14, 2023
- Posted by: admin
- Category: Emilio Cozzi
The historic company, a leader in the production of pressurized environments, has signed an agreement with the Italian Space Agency to develop modules for astronauts on the surface of our natural satellite. A half-century-long story that spans from Spacelab to the Lunar Gateway and the Axiom space station.
BY EMILIO COZZI
The story of how we learned to live in space begins with Mel Brooks.
No, it’s not a “space ball”; we are not referring to Melvin James Brooks, the director of hilarious satires of human existence in film form, such as Spaceballs and Young Frankenstein.
The other Mel Brooks, Our Mel Brooks, born Melvin F. Brooks, was a NASA engineer from the time of the Apollo program—he joined the agency in May 1962—and was “loaned” to the European Space Research Organisation (the precursor to the current European Space Agency) when it came to building and inhabiting Spacelab, the first scientific laboratory resulting from the collaboration between Europe and the United States in the mid-1970s.
A step back: during the development of Spacelab, Mel F. Brooks was responsible for the training of astronauts who would use this new environment, which took shape in Turin, at the facilities of what was then Aeritalia. Exactly forty years ago, in November 1983, Spacelab launched in the belly of the shuttle Columbia: it was the first chapter of a story that continues today, in Corso Marche. Speaking of directors, two who were quite interested in the theme attended the launch: Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas.
Fast forward: the photos arriving today from those same Turin facilities, certainly well modernized, look very much like the black and white ones from the era. Round profiles drawn with a compass, cylinders made of aluminum and copper alloy 2219, a few millimeters thick but capable of withstanding nearly an atmosphere’s pressure and repelling the siege of the vacuum. They are the envelope, the skeleton to be lined with technology, to be sent into orbit, this time around the Moon, or to compose the first private space station. Or as an element of a lunar colony, on the surface. Over forty years, the legacy of this expertise has been collected and cultivated by Thales Alenia Space. In the Turin facilities, the design and forging of volumes that carve out a piece of “home” to bring where there is nothing to sustain life have evolved since the first Spacelab, establishing a leadership in pressurized environments and elements.
From that forge came the Multi Purpose Logistic Module, cargo always brought by space shuttles to the International Space Station. One of these, Leonardo, became the Permanent Multipurpose Module, a component of the American segment of the ISS. A significant portion of the volume of the International Space Station comes from Turin: the Columbus module, Node 2, Node 3, and the spectacular Cupola, an engineering jewel that reconciles safety, functionality – used to maneuver the arms that intercept supplies – and the need for a panoramic view, are “Turinese”. Also Italian are the hulls of the European ATV cargo and the American Cygnus, transport capsules for the orbiting laboratory, and the brand-new Bishop Airlock, the first private airlock attached to the ISS.
Yet, despite the glory, the ISS itself will soon face its epilogue. It has been in orbit for 25 years, with crews inhabiting it continuously since November 2000. And 2030 will probably be the year when it will be gradually abandoned. Right there, where its segments were shaped, the future is being built beyond the monument. Mel Brooks, a veteran of the Apollo missions – and the Korean War – who found the continual circling of the Earth without going anywhere “boring”, would probably be pleased. “We already had teams of people studying missions to Mars,” he declared, referring to the times of Skylab, the American space laboratory, during an interview. That was in 2000, who knows if over the years he changed his mind.
Now the baton will be picked up by a company, Texas-based Axiom. But before its abandonment, the ISS will grow even larger. The new, private spaces, once again, are being built in Turin, where the first two environments that will initially expand the orbiting outpost are already taking shape from 2024 onwards (according to the timeline provided by Axiom). The contract value for Thales Alenia Space (which is an Italian-French joint venture between Leonardo, at 33%, and Thales at 67%): 110 million euros.
The Axiom station will then detach, to live its own life and business. Even from this planning, it is clear how much the crossroads is defined: on one side, operations will continue in low orbit, with a well-fastened umbilical cord to Earth and driven by private initiative. Pure exploration, on the other hand, will be fueled (still) by public investments, paving the way for humanity’s expansion. A lesson learned from one of the fathers of space flight, Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, who believed that no one can stay forever nestled in their cradle.
Starting with the first elements of the lunar orbit space station, the Lunar Gateway: the Esprit modules (a service element with a pressurized environment and windows for external observation) and I-Hab, the International Habitat, the residential part, which Thales Alenia Space provides to ESA with a contract worth over 600 million euros. The structure of Halo (Habitation and Logistic Outpost) will be one of the first two modules to be brought into orbit around the Moon, a contribution through a contract with the American company Northrop Grumman for NASA.
Meanwhile, in the Corso Marche area in Turin, what we might one day call our “lunar home” is taking shape. Again, these will be spaces, volumes, livable refuges to snatch from the depths of space and the uninhabitable conditions, this time of a surface sterilized by radiation and lack of atmosphere. Thales Alenia Space recently signed a contract with the Italian Space Agency to design a habitable module for the lunar surface, called the Multi-Purpose Habitat (MPH), the first permanent inhabited outpost on our satellite for the Artemis program.
Still in an “Element Initiation Review” phase, the program involves the establishment of a consortium of companies, led by Thales Alenia Space, to address the next steps and NASA’s “Mission Concept Review”. The MPH could indeed become a residence and workplace for the next pioneers during missions lasting several weeks, and not just a few days as with the Apollo program. This means planning a refuge from radiation, micrometeorites, regolith, systems to ensure survival and a minimum of self-sufficiency. Up to imagining a colony or a base, a logistics port on the way to Mars.
Right there, in Corso Marche, where the foundation stone of the City of Aerospace was recently laid, there is also a piece of the Red Planet. It’s in the headquarters of Altec. A Martian neighborhood, where the Mel Brooks – both of them, this time – would surely have had fun, perhaps with Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas.