The visit to facilities is an integral part of the School Curriculum allowing the students to “believe through seeing” real facilities that relate directly to the use of optics either at laboratory level or at spacecraft level. During ISSO 2019 two whole days will be dedicated for visits to space engineering companies. Specifically: 

on Wednesday 9 October, we will visit companies based in the area around Rome where a Technological District of Aerospace is present. Among the sites to be visited there will be:

AVIO, the space rocket factory (VEGA and ARIANE launchers) 



The European Space Research Institute (ESRIN), an establishment of the European Space Agency - ESA in Frascati dedicated to Earth Observation, where we will see the "Phi-Experience" facility. This 220m2 exhibition room is aimed at visitors coming to ESRIN (around 50.000 in 2018) and uses interactive display technologies to increase awareness and visibility of ESA’s Earth observation programmes and applications. The aim is to improve the understanding of the benefits of Earth observation for monitoring global change.

    

e-GEOS, an ASI (20%) / Telespazio (80%) company, is a leading international player in the Earth Observation and Geo-Spatial Information business.
e-GEOS offers a unique portfolio of application services, also thanks to the superior monitoring capabilities of COSMO-SkyMed constellation, and has acquired leading position within European Copernicus Program.
Covering the whole value chain, from data acquisition to the generation of analytics reports, e-GEOS is working for big data analytics, based on the integration of different sources.
e-GEOS application platforms include services for: environmental protection, rush mapping in support to natural disaster management, specialized products for defense and intelligence, oil spill and ship detection for maritime surveillance, interferometric measurements for landslides and ground subsidence analysis, thematic mapping for agriculture and forestry.



on Saturday 12 October from 11.00-16.30, we will visit LEONARDO, a European leader in space optics, at Campi Bisenzio premises near Florence. The facilities to be visited include: 

• Museum "Tiezzi" with Space instruments from Cassini and Rosetta mission 
• Optical production facility (1300 sq m) 
• Space payloads integration area (2000 sq m) 
• Space payloads test facilities (thermal vacuum, optical laboratories) 
• Attitude sensors assembly and verification facilities