Supporting the italian space surveillance and tracking research activities

The Italian Space Agency (ASI) and Politecnico di Milano (PoliMI) signed a collaboration agreement in 2023, for supporting the national activities on Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST). This agreement addresses many different topics, concerning both data analysis and theoretical modelling and predictions, thanks to the collaboration with other national research institutes and universities. The study of collision avoidance, re-entry and fragmentation events is planned, to support the EU SST National Operation Center of the Italian Air Force. Laboratory tests to study hypervelocity impacts with different geometries are in progress and the simulation of ground-based observational sensors architectures is also addressed. Moreover, the project involves preliminary studies on cislunar Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and the implementation of AI-based approaches for the SST services. Furthermore, the agreement provides support for numerous fellowships, fostering the development of expertise in the SST field among young researchers and PhD students. This paper presents an overview of the scientific and technical activities supported by the ASI and Politecnico di Milano collaboration.