The Italian space agency ASI has signed a €3.5 million contract with ALTEC for the initial design and construction phase of the Centro di Simulazione e Controllo Missioni Robotiche Lunari (Lunar Robotic Mission Simulation and Control Center).
Located at the ALTEC Turin Aerospace City facilities, the new control center will be completed in three years. According to an ASI press release, the country sees the facility as a part of its broader efforts to position itself as a strategic partner for both the European Space Agency and NASA, especially when it comes to the US space agency’s Artemis programme.
“This infrastructure is intended to support Italian and European planetary exploration and colonization projects in the coming years,” explained ASI president Teodoro Valente. “Today’s agreement for the Lunar Robotic Control Center is part of the energetic activity that ASI is implementing with investments of extraordinary importance for human space exploration. The Moon will be the testing ground for technologies and infrastructures that will prepare us for the next challenge towards the Red Planet.”
Once operational, it will be used to complement the European Space Agency Rover Operation Control Center (ROCC), which is also located in Turin. ROCC was inaugurated in 2019 and was built to initially test and then facilitate the control of the ESA’s Rosalind Franklin Mars rover. The 300-square-meter facility includes a Mars Terrain Simulator that features 140 tonnes of Mars-like terrain created from material that was expelled during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
Apart from the construction timeframe and its operation complementing that of the ESA ROCC facility, the ASI press release included very few actual details about the facility.
