Paolo Marzioli

Sapienza University of Rome is the third oldest University in the world (founded in 1303), the biggest in terms of student numbers in Europe (approx. 120 thousands of students in all faculties). Within aerospace engineering, Sapienza has a long-standing heritage in the field of small satellites, with its CubeSat missions playing a pioneering role in Italy and Europe. The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and its Research Group S5Lab  has demonstrated the effectiveness of CubeSats as platforms for rapid, low-cost experimentation. These missions enabled in-orbit validation of novel technologies and fostered academic-industry collaboration. With 5 satellites launched between 2017 and 2022, with a MEO satellite active for more than 2 years (2022-2024) and with two active CubeSats in LEO since more than 4 years (both launched in 2021), the author’s institution holds an important heritage in space systems development and in-orbit demonstration missions.

Within the conference’s main theme, the author’s research group has conducted an investigation on Internet-of-Things miniaturized communication systems through CubeSat usage with the WildTrackCube-SIMBA mission, which is active in-orbit since March 2021. The mission, funded by Italian Space Agency and developed with Kenyan Universities and partners for wildlife monitoring in Kenya through IoT, has achieved important results in terms of optimization of operational procedures and protocols for < 1 W omnidirectional communication to orbit with a 10-cm spacecraft. The next act will be the launch of CORAL (foreseen on October 19 2025), that will test IoT communication systems for Inter-Satellite Link.