Eight men and four heavy vehicles are part of a caravan that, starting in New York, will circumnavigate the globe via both poles in 18 months. On their crossing of the Arctic and Antarctic, they will move thanks to the eyes of the Cosmo-SkyMed satellites, which from March 29 provide the necessary information to choose the best route for this so-called mission. Transglobal car expedition.
The expedition will cross both the geographic and magnetic poles, the goal is to collect data on the thickness of the ice at the North and South Poles, to the flux of cosmic rays coming from the distant regions of our Universe, from light pollution to the study of the physiological change of man in the environment extremes. The scientific program of the mission, while fully respecting the sustainability of the means and equipment used, includes the measurement of key parameters for understanding the climate changes that have affected our planet on an unprecedented scale in the last 5-10 years. .
This announcement allows us to return to one of the most important topics space economyor industryEarth observation, which makes it possible to obtain important geographical data and not only those useful for the study of meteorology, temperature and places for environmental, social and agricultural purposes. Images transmitted from space by the Cosmo-SkyMed constellation (which should be understood as a group of devices, typically on the same orbital modes, distributed according to longitude, which work together and offer services to users on the ground) allow the crew to navigate the ice with precision and safety.
The Italian Space Agency, in collaboration with e-Geos (a company 20% owned by Asi itself and 80% by Telespazio and the sole concessionaire for the commercial use of satellite data obtained by the Cosmo-SkyMed constellation) plans and provides one image. per day in areas up to 200 kilometers. Based on them, the expedition will then choose the most efficient and best way to reach the North Pole and then to Greenland.