Team Italia and the Google Lunar X Prize challenge

Paper number

IAC-08.A3.2.A15

Author

Dr. Michèle Lavagna, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Coauthor

Mrs. Amalia Ercoli Finzi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Coauthor

Mr. Piero Messina, European Space Agency (ESA), France

Coauthor

Prof. Filippo Graziani, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy

Coauthor

Dr. Maria Antonietta Perino, ThalesAlenia Space Italia S.p.A., Italy

Coauthor

Prof. Gianfranco Chiocchia, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Coauthor

Mr. Andrea Sacchetti, Carlo Gavazzi Space, Italy

Coauthor

Prof. Alberto ROVETTA, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Coauthor

Prof. Francesco Marulo, Italy

Coauthor

Dr. Michèle Lavagna, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Year

2008

Abstract

Team Italia represents the Italian answer to the challenge proposed by the X Prize Foundation and supported by Google: a robot must be sent on the Moon surface within 2012; the root i s asked to cover at least 500 m reporting through both videos and images its walk on lunar surface. A set of tight communications requirements is imposed. The whole mission must be only privately funded. 
Team Italia is answering to such a challenging contest with the AMALIA mission (Ascensio Machinae Ad Lunam Italica Arte): the project is managed by a high level team made of all major Italian aerospace and engineering Universities in the country supported by only two large systems integrators among Italian aerospace industries. More specifically Politecnico di Torino, Politecnico di Milano, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Università di Napoli “Federico II” for the academic participation and Thales Alenia Space SpA in Torino and Carlo Gavazzi Space SpA in Milano for the industrial side are involved. The Naples-based International Association for the Aerospace Culture (AICA from the Italian name) is serving as coordinator for Team Italia. These entities have already an impressive track record in contributing to and developing space exploration and planetary missions for the Italian and the European Space Agency. In addition the reputation of the Team Members will allow the involvement of other industries and commercial entities, traditionally not linked to space activities, in order to mobilise the resources required to carry out the mission. Such a variegated and geographically spread team asks for advanced design philosophy: collaborative and concurrent engineering is the adopted strategy to exploit each entity skill at the best.
The team proposes reliability and costs as  driving criteria for the mission design. Therefore high TRL equipments will be preferred to contain the costs, still taking into account advanced solutions – typically technologically refined - to reduce the overall mass. It should be underlined that the goal of the mission is the success; scientific objectives should be read as secondary. The architecture of the mission is currently under study and different solutions are taken into account both in terms of transfer trajectory, surface architecture and locomotion solution for the robot. The team will probably prefer an equatorial landing site for both subsystem design and guidance and control efforts reduction. 
The paper presents the working philosophy adopted by the team to powerfully answer the mission design task as well as the technical solution proposed to let Team Italia win the challenge.

Abstract document

IAC-08.A3.2.A15.pdf

Manuscript document

(absent)