Il pezzo è tratto da un intervento di Luca Parmitano, astronauta dell’ESA e pilota designato della missione Artemis III, all’Annual Conference 2026 dello Space Economy Evolution Lab (SEE Lab) di SDA Bocconi.
Returning to the Moon means tackling challenges that require new technological solutions. This need to push beyond the limits of our knowledge makes space exploration a driving force behind scientific and technological development.
When we talk about the lunar economy, the term can take on different meanings depending on the perspective from which we approach it. For astronauts like me, its meaning is closely tied to three deeply interconnected activities: scientific research, technological development, and exploration. Each fuels the others and helps generate value, even when that value is difficult to translate immediately into monetary terms.
Scientific knowledge has intrinsic value. Seeking to understand the universe of which we are a part is one of the activities that define our human nature. But research also produces very tangible results, because every new discovery can pave the way for a new technology, and every new technology enables us to advance scientific research. It is a virtuous cycle in which our capabilities continue to expand.
In the 1960s and 1970s, NASA succeeded in landing twelve human beings on the lunar surface. It was an extraordinary achievement, whose scientific and technological results have continued to influence our lives for decades. Yet to understand the economic opportunities ahead, we must recognize a fundamental difference between that era and the new phase of lunar exploration. The Apollo program brought humans to the Moon for the first time, whereas today our goal is to establish sustainable, continuous exploration of the lunar surface. This difference changes the nature of the technological challenge. To carry out the new exploration program, we need technologies that are being developed today and will have to be tested on upcoming missions.
The Artemis program is part of this effort. One of the technological objectives of the Artemis III mission, in which I am expected to participate as a pilot, involves spacecraft approach, rendezvous, and docking operations, culminating in the transfer of the crew to the system designed for the lunar descent.
The new era of lunar exploration also introduces another dimension: international cooperation. The International Space Station has already demonstrated what can be achieved when different countries pool their resources, knowledge, and expertise. Exploring the Moon requires an even greater level of collaboration. The Artemis Accords represent the political dimension of this cooperation. At the operational and economic levels, NASA is working with the European, Canadian, and Japanese space agencies to develop the capabilities needed for future missions. This collaboration allows partners to contribute to exploration and gain access to the lunar surface. Japan, for example, is developing a rover designed to operate on the Moon. Europe has ambitions to establish a service capable of transporting payloads to the lunar surface and subsequently returning them to orbit, where they can be transferred to other spacecraft and brought back to Earth.
This is a capability we have yet to achieve, and it will require new technologies, new engineering expertise, and new professional skills. Developing it will help advance our knowledge and technological capabilities, including in software development. Exploration drives technological development, requires specialized expertise, and contributes to the growth of industrial capabilities in the countries involved.
As an Italian, I take particular pride in my country's ambition to contribute to the development of habitats for the lunar surface. These are mobile structures designed to allow astronauts to live and work on the Moon for extended periods, with the space and resources they need. This program, too, requires the development of technologies and engineering solutions that will help expand our capabilities. Italy and Europe are therefore active participants in this new era of lunar exploration, with projects that directly draw on their scientific and industrial expertise. To seize the resulting opportunities, it is important for the economic system to support this commitment and capitalize on the technological challenges and difficulties we will have to overcome.
The Moon is both a destination and a starting point. The technologies we develop to reach and explore it will allow us to extend the human presence in space even further, beyond Earth orbit and beyond the Earth-Moon system.
For us astronauts, exploration means continuing to expand our knowledge and capabilities, laying the groundwork for reaching ever more distant destinations. It is in this relationship between knowledge, technology, and exploration that a fundamental part of the value of the future lunar economy lies.
