The contract is part of the AURORA project (itAlian Urban aiR mObility technologies & distRibuted test), funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and executed in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). ENAC is the prime contractor in the initiative, with Telespazio assuming the role of technological partner and design authority.
The project fully responds to the UAM/AAM national strategy set out by ENAC in collaboration with the Italian Ministry for Technological Innovation and Digital Transition, and is in line with the SESAR Joint Undertaking initiative.
AURORA proposes to create a distributed technological infrastructure (Test Facility) to include the Telespazio laboratory in Rome dedicated to global navigation satellite systems (GLASS-GNSS Lab-as-a-Service), the Centro Italiano di Ricerca Aerospaziale (CIRA, Italian Aerospace Research Centre) in Capua, and Grottaglie Airport near Taranto, where the Distretto Tecnologico Aerospaziale (DTA, Aerospace Technology District) operates.
In Telespazio’s GLASS Lab, the company’s GNSS engineering team will be tasked with creating and developing new technologies and services. These will then be validated in the CIRA laboratories and finally field tested at Grottaglie airport.
To date, the UAM/AMM applications at the development stage include services such as the future urban air transport (aerotaxi) project, the delivery of medicines, biomedical products or goods to remote or disadvantaged areas (also to support the authorities in emergency management), and services to support police forces in the monitoring and surveillance of urban and suburban areas.