e-Geos

In occasion of the 10th anniversary since the first COSMO-SkyMed satellite's launch (07/06/2007), the Italian Space Agency (ASI) organized a workshop. It has been a timely opportunity to take stock of the situation of the current operational status and use of the mission COSMO-SkyMed, to tell the national community the innovations of the Second Generation (CSG), and to listen to the users needs.
COSMO-SkyMed is an earth observation system designed for a dual purpose, both civilian and military. Developed by ASI and the Italian Ministry of Defence, COSMO-SkyMed is based on a constellation of 4 identical satellites using SAR technology and working on X band. This system allows to obtain images despite the metereological conditions and the light. The realization of the constellation has been committed to the italian industry: Leonardo and its joint venture of the Space Alliance with Thales. While Thales developed and constructed the spacecrafts, Telespazio realized the ground segment.
The debate was opened by the Italian Space Agency's President, Roberto Battiston, who recalled the relevance of this day for Italy. He thanked the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research. The first one because allowed the realization of a shared mission in which coexist military and civilian objectives. The second one for its support to an absolutely innovative initiative. Infact today it's quite obvious that a satellite constellation has to capable to satisfy needs on demand with an high precision, but it wasn't so evident 20-15 years ago, when the project begun. He also briefly recalled the importance of the italian industry for the realization of COSMO-SkyMed and of the users - for example the civil protection.
The ASI wants to listen to everyone's opinion: from the partners to the​ scientific and commercial users, etc.
At the event's first day, the guests underlined the value of COSMO-SkyMed not only for the Italian industry, but for the entire Country. As recalled by Giovanni Fuggetta (Thales), competitors are running fast and to maintain the primacy of COSMO-SkyMed it's necessary to proceed to the future even faster. The second generation of COSMO (CGS) is about to be completed (launches are scheduled between 2018 and 2020) and, as the general Giuseppe Sgamba said, a lot of interest has already been showed by many nations about the possibilities this new constellation will offer. Nonetheless it's still important to think to the third generation in order to ensure that the national industry will continue to play a primary role in Earth observation sector.
Massimo Comparini, CEO of e-Geos, company involved in the development, production and commercialization of Earth observation services, products and applications, highlighted the accomplishments of COSMO-SkyMed. Despite it has been designed 20 years ago, COSMO-SkyMed still offers forefront services, such as Map Italy which allows to have a complete vision of our territory every 16 days. Agricolture, security, protection of the cultural and natural heritages, are just few of the fields in which COSMO-SkyMed plays an important role.
Comparini also said that the radar images are just a portion of the Earth observation datas, around 15% of the total, but this number is expected to grow in the next years thank to their versatility and reliability. Therefore is important to put the user segment on the same level of the ground segment (space and infastructure), since it is the terminal part of the full capitalization process of the developed assets.
The COSMO-SkyMed constellation is a highly performant system which delivers industrial operative services to support:
- National institutional users, such as the Defence, the Civil Protection, the Coast Guard, ISPRA
- International institutional users, first of all Copernicus
This is accomplished by the continuous collaboration between institutional users, industry, ASI and italian centers of research. Therefore the second genration will aknowledge and put in practice the lessons learnt during the intensive operative use of COSMO-SkyMed.
In conclusion, we're not just celebrating 10 years of a space program operation, because COSMO-SkyMed has created a complex system all around the infrastructure, which has contributed to establish the Earth Observation Radar on the market, despite the initial mistrust by institutional users for the high complexity of the data. It's the product of farsighted investments in ideas and skills, which generated what can be surely called a success of this Country. A success of the entire community which was present at the event's opening.
It's a cultural and technological heritage which should be valorized and applied in the development of new radar sensors and hyperspectral imaging, a sector in which Italy is leading the way at european level.