Giuseppe Sala teaches at the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology at the Politecnico di Milano and chairs the Technical-Scientific Committee of BEX – Beyond Exploration, the space economy expo-conference debuting at the Rimini Exhibition Centre from 23 to 25 September 2026, promoted by the Italian Exhibition Group together with the Emilia-Romagna Region. We caught up with him in Valle d’Aosta to hear about the event’s aims and background.

There are hundreds of space-related events already. What does BEX add to this mix?

The Artemis mission is telling in this respect. The Americans are going back to the Moon, with the first launch this year, then in 2028. It’s a paradigm shift: the Moon is no longer a destination to be reached once in a while. It’s not enough to get there: we have to stay there. That means we need energy, cargo transport, rovers for exploration, telecommunications, maintenance, robotics, logistics, redundancy. We need an industrial supply chain that guarantees transport capacity and a stable presence. This involves sectors previously considered unrelated to space: nutrition, clothing, medicine, pharmacology, physiology, wellness. These are sectors that are already well developed, having advanced a long way to meet requirements here on Earth, without knowing that one day space would need them too. And conversely, space has needs of its own, and may not be entirely aware that those sectors are already able to meet them. It’s about creating a mutual awareness that there are people out there who can solve these problems.

Rimini also hosts Ecomondo. How much weight does sustainability carry in this sector?

The space economy is currently worth around 600-700 billion dollars, and growth of 10-12% a year is forecast between now and 2030, higher than any other industrial sector. Right now, there are about 25,000 satellites in orbit, with thousands more launched every year. That creates a debris problem, which is an environmental sustainability problem; not “environmental” in the sense we usually mean on Earth, but relating to the “space environment”. That debris needs to be recovered because it’s dangerous, and it can also be reused. And then, there’s the matter of energy. The Saturn V rocket from the Apollo programme was 95% fuel by weight: the least efficient means of transport imaginable. We need to think about alternative sources; there’s increasing interest in nuclear power, and in energy sources found in space. Just think of solar sails, which are pushed forward by light thanks to the absence of aerodynamic resistance. A large object propelled simply by photons. It’s hard to imagine anything more environmentally compatible than that.

Is Europe at risk of falling behind on this front?

At the moment, there is no scientific or technological gap. We are on a par with the United States and China in everything that matters, from launchers to satellites to orbital stations. SpaceX has completely changed the paradigm: NASA is now seen kind of like a dinosaur, stuck with a 1960s and 1970s approach, a monopolistic position, and very high costs. In just a few years, Musk has drastically cut the cost of putting payloads into orbit, and now 70% of satellites in orbit are privately owned. China takes a state-led approach, with very long-term programmes that it sticks to with Swiss-like precision, investing whatever needs to be invested. Europe’s weakness lies elsewhere: the ability to attract private investment. The ideas are there, in quantity and in quality, among students and young graduates. The trouble is that in space, startups are often manufacturing businesses. When a small company develops a new launcher, it needs money, and lots of it. It takes the kind of financial boldness that the United States has, the willingness to make high-risk investments. In Europe, we are more cautious, more bankers than venture capitalists. What economists call the “valley of death”, i.e., the stretch between when an idea takes off and when it starts generating revenue, requires a financial fabric with the guts to provide that support.

BEX will also spotlight the regulatory framework. Why is this an urgent matter?

There’s no global space law, unlike the aviation law that emerged from the 1944 Chicago Convention. Back then, every country, including China and the Soviet Union, came to an agreement and set up ICAO, an organisation which, unlike the UN, actually works. In space, nothing like this exists yet. There are national laws, there’s the European Space Act, but we’re still at the stage where someone can arrive, plant a flag, and that patch of territory becomes theirs. Anyone entering this sector needs to know what legislative framework they’re operating in, what regulations, what certifications, what insurance agreements apply. BEX will have dedicated thematic areas, involving insurance companies and certification bodies. Someone might say: I’ve got a great idea that works, but what standards do I need to follow to put it on a satellite?

As an engineer, what is the lesser-known subject closest to your heart?

I like talking about things that are actually being done. There’s an aspect of the space world called ISRU, in-situ resource utilisation, and it’s an essential step: we can’t expect to travel around space carrying everything we need with us. Regolith, the lunar sand that still bears the imprint of Armstrong's boot, is the one thing you find when you get there. It’s not unlike sand found on Earth: silicon oxide with scattered minerals. In Italy, there’s a pilot plant that produces water from regolith. Using a fridge-sized reactor, the metallic components are separated from the silica sand, and the recovered oxygen is used to produce the water needed to irrigate greenhouse crops on the lunar surface using precision agriculture techniques. The metallic part, thanks to additive manufacturing, is used to build living shelters capable of protecting astronauts from radiation, a major danger during long stays. From a seemingly not-very-useful material, you get essential elements for both food production and housing.

How do you imagine BEX will evolve?

It has to evolve naturally. In the history of transport, there’s always been a continuity of design and technology: the first cars were built by people who, until then, had built carriages, and indeed borrowed their appearance from what they knew. The first aeroplane was built by the Wright brothers, who made bicycles, and it’s no coincidence that the transmission on the Wright Flyer used techniques and materials drawn from the field the two pioneers came from. Look at aviation: at first, the design problem was focused on hardware (structure, aerodynamics, propulsion), then, as the system became increasingly capable and complex, many other neighbouring technological fields necessarily had to be integrated: electronics, avionics, control systems, transmission, communication, artificial intelligence. Today, the hardware side matters less, in terms of both criticality and cost, than avionics, which in turn matters less than the “system of systems” made up of air transport together with ground infrastructure. I expect the same to happen with BEX: it will progressively integrate the sectors it already addresses, and others still to come, quite naturally, simply because space, as it moves from a pioneering phase to a systematic one, will demand it.

Cover: Giuseppe Sala