The Heritage of Giuseppe Colombo at the University of PadovaCesare Barbieri
Department of Astronomy
and CISAS
University of Padova
The Heritage of Giuseppe Colombo at the University of Padova
Cesare Barbieri
Department of Astronomy
and CISAS
University of Padova
Where was He?
It was not easy to find Bepi in Padova, he was always somewhere else, Pisa, Rome, Paris, Harvard, Pasadena, … But I had a great privilege, to be invited by Leonida Rosino to his Sunday afternoons with Bepi at the Specola, great occasions for me to listen and learn. Those afternoons shaped a great deal of my scientific activity.
Some topics of these conversations
Liberally quoting from Rosino (Commemoration of Giuseppe Colombo, Academy of Sciences, Padova, 1985):
We discussed Pluto, Mercury, the Rings of Uranus and Saturn, Japetus, comets… Almost nothing remains of our discussions, because Bepi never had the time to write papers….
Well, almost…, as I'll show you in the following.
Some of these themes were soon developed in great detail and with great success, like the astrometry of Pluto and the mission GIOTTO to Comet Halley, others like Cassini spectacularly revitalizes the interest on the ring structure, NASA Messenger and ESA's Bepi Colombo will bring further testimony of his insight.
Astrometry of Pluto
In preparation for a Grand Tour that never materialized, we obtained with the Asiago Schmidt telescope a long series of positions that at the time were some of the best available. The Asiago data cover more than 10% of the orbit of Pluto.
Astrometry and Hipparcos
Bepi was instrumental to have Hipparcos accepted by ESA
(G. Colombo, Astrometry and the Dynamic Structure of the Outer Solar System, 1977)
Satellite and Space Geodesy
Bepi helped to define a MoU between ASI and NASA, that opened the way of the Italian contribution to the high-frequency studies of polar motion and tectonic motions through satellites laser ranging, activities well pursued inside CISAS. The figure shows how this concept has successfully evolved in the past 20 years, leading to satellite measured velocity patterns across Europe, in the order of few mm/yr, which geologists relate to large scale deformations, some of which may be seismogenetic.
The Matera Laser Ranging Station
The name Giuseppe Colombo for the ASI Geodesy station in Matera is therefore very well deserved.
The GIOTTO Mission to Comet Halley
This was for me the first Space Mission where we had the duty to build real space hardware, namely the metal mirror and the Kevlar baffle for the Halley Multicolour Camera. A Halley Multicolour Camera, Keller, H. U.; Arpigny, C.; Barbieri, C.; Benvenuti, P.; Biermann, L.; Bonnet, R. M.; Cazes, S.; Colombo, G.; Cosmovici, C. B.; Delamere, W. A.; Heubner, W. F.; Hughes, D. W.; Hunt, G. E.; Jamar, C.; Mackay, C. D.; Malaise, D.; Schmidt, W. K. H.; Seige, P.; Whipple, F. L.; Wilhelm, K., SCIENTIFIC AND EXPERIMENTAL ASPECTS OF THE GIOTTO MISSION, (BATTRICK,B. + MORT,J. EDITORS) ESA-SP-169. JUNE 1981. PP. 105-117.
Encounter '86
When the book Encounter '86 was presented to the Holy Father Giovanni Paolo II, Bepi was not with us anymore.
His untimely departure had left a great void but also a great commitment for the future.
In 1991 CISAS was founded.
The Interdepartmental Center for Studies and Space Activities (CISAS) “G.Colombo” was instituted in January 1991
The many activities of CISAS
Today, CISAS covers many activities:
Higher education and formation
Mission design, orbit determination, Space navigation
Design, build, assembly, test Space hardware
Provide consultancy to Space Agencies and Industries
Higher Education
- 3 years Undergraduate Course in Aerospace Engineering, more than 150 students each year; the +2 years Course starts in 2004
- 3 years PhD Course in Space Sciences and Technology, 6 students each year
- Master in Astronautics and Satellite Sciences, 20 students
The students are actively inserted in all Space activities, from initial design to scientific data exploitation.
Navigation Group
Mission Analysis and Design
Trajectory Optimization
Orbit Determination
Satellite Geodesy
Interplanetary Navigation
Solar System Exploration
UVISS, the study of an UV telescope on the ISS
Four Missions in Flight, and more to come
In flight:
- SoHO
- Mars Express
- Cassini-Huygens
- Rosetta
To come:
- future missions to Mars
- Venus Express
- UVISS
- Bepi Colombo
- …
UVCS on the Solar Heliospheric Observatory
The instrument Comets plunging into the Sun
The Planetary Fourier Spectrometer on Mars Express
The near future: IPSE for Mars 2005
Studies for a Mars Navigator simulator
ROSETTA
CISAS contributed hardware and software for the Wide Angle camera and mechanisms for OSIRIS, parts of VIRTIS and of the lander, thermal and structural analysis.
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