Successful Completion of Phase B of the RAMSESS Project, Part of ASI’s ALCOR Program

Last November, at CIRA and in the presence of representatives from the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the final meeting of the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for the RAMSESS project was held. Funded by ASI under the ALCOR program, the project focuses on the development of a nanosatellite by a Temporary Business Group led by CIRA and composed of leading space industry companies—IMT, Kayser IT, Due2Lab—as well as prestigious Italian universities, including the University of Naples Federico II and Politecnico di Milano.

The mission aims to validate in orbit an innovative radiation detector, developed by Due2Lab and based on a cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT) sensor, capable of performing selective and isotropic dosimetric measurements of charged particles originating from the Van Allen belts, the Sun, and deep space. The device will fly aboard a CubeSat in a polar orbit to characterize the radiation environment at high-latitude regions, enabling the collection of data unaffected by the shielding effects of the atmosphere.

The completion of Phase B marks the definition of the satellite’s preliminary design and prepares the project for the next detailed design phase. Activities carried out, including tests conducted last July at CIRA’s Space Qualification Laboratory, confirmed the breadboard payload’s qualification for the space environment, ensuring its resilience to launch stresses and the extreme conditions of the vacuum of space.