Translator: Michele Gianella Reviewer: Alessio Politi
We all have goals, ambitions, dreams.
Some of us want want to change the world, some yearn for success;
other simply seek happiness.
Often these dreams, these goals, these ambitions
seem unrealizable, impossible.
But there's a field
where the seemingly impossible is the daily challenge.
Look at this photo: have you ever seen it?
Hardly so.
That little dot is us.
This is a picture of the Earth:
it is the farthest photo ever taken from the Earth so far.
It was taken by NASA's Voyager One probe, in 1990,
in interstellar space, beyond the solar system,
six billion kilometers away.
Well, if six billion kilometers
are difficult to grasp, to imagine,
I can tell you that this photo took more than five hours
to get here to us, on Earth, at the speed of light.
Voyager One was not a dream, an ambition:
Voyager One was a mission.
A mission planned for ten years.
In every single action, every single note,
every step, every risk, every small action
was planned and managed.
And Voyager One continues its mission today:
it's been doing so for 42 years today,
and continues to travel into the unknown, into interstellar space.
But what is a mission?
Well, by definition
it is the fulfillment of a series of actions
in order to achieve a set goal.
Missions are assigned to us since we are little:
at one, learning how to walk;
in school, passing exams;
in the job market.
They are assigned to us;
but we rarely assign a mission to ourselves.
Have you ever wondered what your mission is
five years from now, for example?
Or what your mission was this morning
when you got up to come here to TEDxBassanoDelGrappa?
I work in the aerospace industry, I do missions for a living.
I willll share some now.
2011, Galileo.
I work on it for almost 20 years: this is the first launch,
with the first two satellites.
Galileo is our European satellite navigation system.
You all know GPS satellite navigation,
probably for GPS:
you use it in your cell phone
to navigate, or when you share your positions.
Maybe you do not know, [however],
that the latest generation of cell phones also support our European system, Galileo.
And you also have the Russian Glonass and Beidu, the Chinese system.
Galileo sends radio signals.
You already know it:
it sends a radio signal,
the cell phone takes the position and calculates it.
What you may not know
is that the satellites are positioned 26,000 kilometers away,
and we can calculate the position with less than one meter of precision.
This is equivalent to taking twice the diameter of the Earth,
transmitting a radio signal on one side
and carefully measure the arrival time on the other
with a few nanoseconds of tolerance.
This means a few billionths of a second:
it amazes me every time I think about it.
I have dedicated almost half of my life
to satellite navigation:
my mission has always been
to work on the safety, the robustness of these systems.
Think about the importance of security on applications like Aeronautics,
for example:
when you travel by plane during cruise,
travel, approach to airports,
or when you land in the fog at 3-400 kilometers per hour,
satellite navigation systems
are one of the main means of positioning.
Or in the world of autonomous navigation:
more and more states allow today autonomous, driverless vehicles.
In a not so distant future you will be able to get into your car,
drink a coffee, read a newspaper, sleep
and safely get to your destination.
But there's more to it: in recent years,
a system designed to work here on Earth
has started to be used in space.
The principle is quite simple: we use satellites, which are in space,
to calculate the position of another object
in space.
In the Garis mission in 2018,
NASA and ESA left us a challenge
to develop the first combined Galileo/GPS receiver
to work on the ISS.
The International Space Station, you see,
is as big as a soccer field.
It flies in orbit at an altitude of 400 kilometers.
It hosts astronauts.
This had never been done before, and the challenge was taken.
For the first time
United States and Europe worked together with the two systems:
the American GPS and the European Galileo.
It all seemed quite easy,
until when, at the beginning of the activity,
we discovered we no longer had access to the hardware,
to the ground replica which is that blue object:
this picture was taken directly from the station.
And we had to rebuild a local replica:
buying parts, integrating several solutions,
even buying used parts on the Internet.
Then, a few months into the activity, a component of the radio broke.
We had a "Houston, we have a problem" moment
because the software on the station was uploaded from there.
We managed to reprogram the hardware
using a second frequence, which is available on the satellites.
We worked day and night to achieve success:
we went out to calculate the position of the station
and also the orbits, quite accurately.
In the Gareo mission, 2019,
the challenge was to develop a Galileo GPS receiver
that would work on a NASA rocket
going into space
in less than a minute and with 18g of acceleration.
18g is 18 times the acceleration of gravity
you have here on Earth when you fall.
We had two months
to do electronics, software,
test and qualification campaigns.
Within minutes of launch,
the mission control reports an anomaly on one of our on-board systems.
We had a few seconds to give the "go / no go" to the mission,
and we managed, through a small satellite terminal,
to communicate with colleagues half world away -
we were in November, in the New Mexico desert -
to give the final go to the mission.
A mission that was a success: the rocket went into space,
we were able to calculate the entire trajectory;
a piece was dropped;
the receiver returned to the ground by parachute
and was recovered by the military.
What's in store for us?
We think that satellite navigation systems
can also be used on the Moon.
Major space agencies are working
to build lunar bases
to build "Gateway",
which will be a space station orbiting the Moon.
Is it possible dream?
Maybe: certainly, a mission where we work on every little detail.
A single chip that can
work on the Earth, travel on the rocket,
arrive on the International Space Station,
work during the cislunar transit to the Moon to the gateway,
work on the gateway
and also on a vehicle that lands on the lunar ground.
Today, Galileo is operational: we have 24 satellites.
Garys: mission accomplished; Gareo: mission accomplished;
Moon: challenge accepted.
Can we take from space some life lessons?
And what is hidden behind a mission's success?
Passion, first of all.
Love and passion for what you do is the first key to success.
If you pursue your dreams, if you really work for your dreams,
you have already won.
Perseverance:
Never, ever give up;
even when you think you are completely lost,
never give up.
Think plan B, plan C; bang your head, but never give up.
Knowledge:
we are the books we read, the people we hang out with.
Quit studying, learning, knowing, is not an option.
Knowledge is power,
and power as a verb, not only as a noun:
empowering us to do and give more.
There is no mission when we [should not] return to books
to study and learn and know.
And finally, modesty.
Be aware of your limits, your strengths, your abilities.
Accept challenges
that allow you to dare to the limits of the impossible,
but never beyond.
If we really want to change the world, or simply seek success,
seek happiness.
Never forget passion, perseverance, knowledge and humility.
Look for your mission, plan your mission,
becasuse nothing else will nudge you.
And energy is the only thing
that will leave a trace to those after you.
Thank you.
(Applause)