“Festival dello Spazio” event in North Italy
At the end of June, our branch BIS-Italia has been invited to participate to a four days event organised, in its 8th edition by Dr. Franco Malerba, first Italian astronaut on STS-46, during which he was responsible for the TSS-1 satellite, the famous “tethered satellite”.
For this event, BIS-Italia put together a minimal stand with a small group of volunteers and brought for the first time to a large public the new version of BIS’ Space Shuttle Landing Simulator.
Franco Malerba, a good friend of our Society, was not the only astronaut present. While he represented an entire older generation of astronauts, a more recent generation was represented by BIS-Italia good friend Paolo Nespoli, retired ESA astronaut, who flew on STS-120, TMA-20 and MS-05. The newer generation of astronauts was represented by Italian Air Force test pilot Cap. Andrea Patassa, recently selected as an ESA reserve astronaut.
Flying the simulator
All three astronauts tried, of course, our Space Shuttle Landing Simulator, each one taking advantage of his own flying experience, and each one found some aspect worth of some improvement.
Here are a few images of them “flying” a Shuttle landing at KSC.
The current setup of the simulator is pretty complex, mainly because of the need to convert a standard USB joystick into something acceptable for the game controller which interacts with the iPad running the simulation software.
Both Malerba and Nespoli signed the certificates that we usually give to the people that try the simulator. This has been a very nice gesture that helped us give the public a unique souvenir of the experience.
Congratulations are also due to volunteers Domenico, Carlo, Elena and Fabio for becoming quick expert instructors and handling about 150 people throughout the event, providing also information about the BIS and its activities.
More information about the BIS simulators can be found in the articles section of the website.
The Space Shuttle Landing Simulator will also be featured during BIS participation to the event held on 27 September at ESA/ESRIN (near Rome, Italy) in the frame of the European Researchers’ Night event.
The simulator is also scheduled to appear at IAC2024, for which more information will be provided soon.
Not only simulators
The Festival dello Spazio also provided conferences on various topics, round tables, other interactive activities and a small exhibition area. The following photos provide a quick sample of the event.
The BIS is grateful to Dr. Franco Malerba for having offered our Society the opportunity to participate to this event.
