The Heritage of Giuseppe Colombo at the University of Padova

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The Heritage of Giuseppe Colombo at the
University of Padova
Cesare Barbieri Department of Astronomy and
CISAS University of Padova
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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)
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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.
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The Matera Laser Ranging Station
The name Giuseppe Colombo for the ASI Geodesy
station in Matera is therefore very well
deserved.
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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.
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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.
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The Interdepartmental Center for Studies and
Space Activities (CISAS) G.Colombo was
instituted in January 1991
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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

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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.
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Navigation Group

• Mission Analysis and
  Design
• Trajectory Optimization
• Orbit Determination
• Satellite Geodesy
• Interplanetary Navigation
• Solar System Exploration

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UVISS, the study of an UV telescope on the ISS
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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 -
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UVCS on the Solar Heliospheric Observatory
Comets plunging into the Sun
The instrument
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The Planetary Fourier Spectrometer on Mars Express
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The near future IPSE for Mars 2005
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Studies for a Mars Navigator simulator
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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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The WAC for Rosetta
A unique optical design, only 2 aspheric mirrors
for an aberration free FoV of 12x12 degrees!
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The shutters for OSIRIS
High photometric precision, large area,
robustness, exposure times as short as 10 msec,
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The Rosetta comet and asteroids
The TNG was immediately put to work on the new
comet and new asteroids. How dusty is P/67 C-G!
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The Cassini Huygens Mission
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HASI on Huygens
CISAS fostered the utilization of balloons
(including launches from Antarctica) for testing
HASI and sounding the Earth's atmosphere.
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The latest from Cassini
Prometheus and Pandora - April 15, 2004Cassini
has sighted Prometheus and Pandora, the two
F-ring-shepherding moons whose unpredictable
orbits both fascinate scientists and wreak havoc
on the F ring.
- Theory of motion of Saturn's coorbiting
satellites Yoder, C. F. Colombo, G.
Synnott, S. P. Yoder, K. A., Icarus (ISSN
0019-1035), vol. 53, March 1983, p. 431-443 - A
possible link between the rotation of Saturn and
its ring structure Franklin, F. A. Colombo, G.
Cook, A. F., Nature, vol. 295, Jan. 14, 1982, p.
128-130.
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Mercury
Secular resonance, solar spin down, and the orbit
of Mercury Ward, W. R. Colombo, G.
Franklin, F. A., Icarus, vol. 28, Aug. 1976, p.
441-452. The Rotation of the Planet
Mercury Colombo, Giuseppe Shapiro, Irwin I. Astro
physical Journal, vol. 145, p.296, 1966
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Mercury Na D atmosphere
In preparation for the ESA Bepi Colombo mission,
we are obtaining with the TNG a series of
exospheric spectra of Mercury in the Na-D
emission lines. The emission extends well above
the disk of the planet, and we are looking for an
interpretation of this feature.
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Equipments
Two thermal vacuum chambers, a vibration table,
two clean rooms for optical works, etc.
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A unique hypervelocity facility
This gas gun has peculiar capabilities, and a
complete series of testing and diagnostic
instruments. CISAS represents therefore the
Italian Space Agency in the IADC.
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Hypervelocity Impact Facility
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Liberally quoting from Bepi's last speech
(Istituto di Scienze Lettere e Arti, Venezia,
June 19, 1983) "In the evening shadow, my mind
was replenished by the characters already alive,
and by those still to be borne but already ripe
of life, a giant protected by a large shield
moving against the Sun in an epic fight, a
celestial fisherman with a long fishing line
catching the secrets of a mysterious Nature, an
enormous but light butterfly in the Sun's glare,
giant jellyfish able to protect our Earth, the
jewel of the Solar System. Fictions? No, it is
real! Sirs, real!"
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Conclusions
I hope that this short review is testimony of our
desire to keep the memory of Giuseppe Colombo
well alive. Other speakers will add more. My
personal hope is that one of our many students,
today or tomorrow, will be able to open new
frontiers of Celestial Mechanics, Space
Engineering and Space Exploration as Bepi
masterly did not only till 20 years ago but
projecting into our future.