Sustainability and prevention are intimately connected. In the field of environmental management is it clearly necessary to move from policies that intervene after the fact to treat damage, to interventions aimed at preventing that damage. This is true for both anthropogenic climate change but also for environmental disasters unrelated to human activity: there can be no sustainability without prevention. In the following we give two examples where prevention plays a crucial role.

Space Weather

Modern society has become increasingly dependent on reliable technologies in the fields of communication, navigation, power grid systems, which can be vulnerable to energetic solar events. The latest US government research on the economic impact of the occurrence of another major geomagnetic storm like the”super storm” of 1859 shows potential costs on the nation’s technological infrastructure (power grid, satellites, GNSS receivers, etc.) of about 15–20 trillion US$. Even minor events can do enormous damage, as in the case of the loss of about 40 Starlink satellites due to a relatively small solar event on February 3, 2022. The solar wind is the ultimate source of energy and is responsible for virtually all the magnetospheric dynamics. Describing and quantifying the solar wind energy transfer to the Earth’s magnetosphere-ionosphere system is one of the fundamental questions in space physics. For these reasons, the space weather (SWE) and the solar physics are primary themes in the road-maps of the European Union and European Space Agency (ESA). The study of solar activity, the solar wind and its interaction with the earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere, troposphere and atmosphere is mainly done using space infrastructures. The main objectives are the understanding of solar phenomena and the transport of solar wind energy events to the Earth, the detailed modelling of these phenomena, the ability to make timely predictions, and therefore the possibility of implementing strategies to mitigate the effects of solar phenomena on terrestrial infrastructures. In this context, the priority scientific activities are the following:

  • Studying architectures, satellite techniques and innovative methods aimed at spatially and temporally resolved monitoring of SWE events.

  • Analysis and modelling of events that enable preventive prevention and prevention in real time.

  • Design of a network capable of connecting and making the scientific segment (analyses and models) work efficiently together with the operational one (observations, monitoring and interventions).

Italian research groups and in particular also the group at INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, INAF-OATs in Friuli Venezia Giulia are active in all these areas. INAF-OATs is leading a study funded by ESA (and including several other Italian and European teams, Politecnico di Milano, Universita’ di Trento, University of Maribor and SKYLABS d.o.o, a Slovenian SME), to design a distributed architecture of nano-satellites to monitor solar energetic events such as Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) and Solar Energetic Particles (SEP). CME are rather common, occurring from once per day at solar minimum to several per day at solar maximum. More extreme SEP events are rarer, occurring from once every few per months to a few per months. These events worsen the radiation environment around the Earth, representing a hazardous condition for both technological systems and humans. CUBE (CME Catcher Carousel) will monitor the magnetospheric response to CME and SEP at reconnection sites and near the poles using a constellation of nano-sats. The main objective of the constellation is to identify incoming CME and SEP events, measure them at different magnetospheric locations and altitude to quantitatively understand the energy transport toward the Earth. The baseline mission analysis, to be confirmed during the study, includes two 6U CubeSat on circular SSO and eight 12U CubeSats on two highly energetic circular orbit, ~60000 km radius, phased 90 deg away from one another. All units will be equipped with magnetometers, plasma analyzer, and particle monitors capable of measuring magnetic field strength of a few nT, proton spectra from a few tens keV to a few hundred MeV, and electron spectra up to a few hundred keV.

Minor Bodies of the Solar System

Another important issue on which the OATs team decided to contribute, in the spirit of the sustainability of our Planet, is the Prevention for asteroid impacts. That the impact of an asteroid against our planet is a likely hypothesis is certainly not new. The Chelyabinsk meteor, which fell in Russia in 2013 with an energy release equal to 30 times the Hiroshima atomic bomb, reminded us all too well, while in 1994 the impact of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (2 km large) on Jupiter has generated a crater so large that it is clearly visible from the Earth. Defense against asteroid impacts on Earth includes three fundamental points:

  • identification of potentially dangerous asteroids;

  • tracking and evaluation of the risk of the impact on the Earth;

  • response to a possible threat

The first two points are covered by the Space Situational Awareness programs of ESA, NASA, etc. About the third point, we are in a phase of great increase in activity. On November 23, 2021, the DART probe was launched by NASA carried out the first impact experiment with an asteroid to study the deflection capacity of its orbit on September 26th 2022. The probe also hosted an experiment of the Italian Agency of Space (ASI), LiciaCube, a 6U CubeSat that detached from the mother probe before impact and filmed the impact itself with its two cameras, LUKE and LEIA. The DART impact on the small moon Dimorphos orbiting the asteroid Dydimos was definitely spectacular, as both LiciaCube images as well as HST, JWST and ground-based telescopes have testified. The impact has changed the period of Dimorphos by about 32 min or slightly less than 5%, showing that this technique can be capable to deflect hazard asteroids that may risk hitting the Earth. In such dangerous situations the ability to predict the event with as much time as possible is the most important key to success. In fact, the angle of deflection, and the relative energy of the impact. will be the smaller the greater the distance of the dangerous asteroid from the earth. The discovery, monitoring and characterization of near Earth asteroids is therefore the key to the success of these prevention activities.

ESA is also preparing the HERA probe, which will be launched in 2026, which will have the task of reaching the asteroid hit by DART and studying the long-term effects of the impact. INAF-OATs is involved in both LiciaCube and HERA and is active both in the modelling of the event and in the design and programming of new experiments in the field.

Space is Really Interdisciplinary

We have seen that the use of artificial satellites enable the acquisition of crucial data on the Sun and its interaction with the Earth, both using remote sensing and solar particle detection, and provide a way to monitor and even deflects potentially dangerous asteroids. Space based satellite architectures have also been revolutionary for Earth system observations. Satellite architectures have enabled and enable the acquisition of quantitative climate change information considering all components of the Earth system, providing meteorological, terrestrial, oceanographic, and cryosphere data on both local and global scales. Earth observation data must be combined with in situ environmental measurements to build a digital twin of the Earth, using complex models, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence. This replica of the planet will provide an accurate representation of Earth’s past, present and future changes, enabling the development of”what if” simulations to support decision making. Europe is a leader in Earth observation, which can support space-based green transition solutions for society and business. Both ESA and the EU are engaged in long-standing space programs to monitor climate change, and lead the ecological transition, enabling the EU to achieve its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. Space has untapped potential to help achieve better understanding through modelling, enabling predictive predictions, and supporting policy formulation needed for implementation and monitoring. Space can also offer sustainable and commercial solutions for a green and decarbonised economy. All of this implies that space activities cut across many of the themes presented in this book, and thus these can stimulate interdisciplinary collaborations.