Francesca Palermo joined Leonardo immediately after her master's degree at the Politecnico di Milano, and in a short time she expanded her skills, moving from systems engineer to Project Engineering Manager. A path of growth that accompanies her lifelong passion: the fascination with the infinitely large and distant, now scientifically observable and measurable in Space through electro-optical sensors and satellites.
In those years, Francesca worked on numerous Star Tracker projects for various platforms and space missions, including those of the Copernicus programme, and recently expanded her field of activity to other electro-optical space instruments, such as LUMIO-Cam.
“The Star Tracker is an electro-optical sensor that supports the orientation and navigation system on board satellites. It is able to identify with high precision the orientation of a satellite in Space in an inertial reference system by comparing the observed stars with a star catalogue,” she explains. It is therefore a fundamental tool for identifying the exact position of a satellite relative to Earth.
LUMIO-Cam is a scientific instrument, funded by the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, whose design involves Leonardo and the Politecnico di Milano, among others. “The goal,” says Francesca, “is to observe and quantify the impacts of meteoroids, small rocks that cannot be observed from Earth, on the hidden side of the Moon, through the remote detection of flashes of light caused by the impacts.” It is an engineering challenge not only to observe the other side of the Moon, but also to study the flow of meteorites and celestial bodies crossing the space between the Earth and its natural satellite.
A lifelong fan of science fiction–Arthur Clarke’s Earthlight feels especially fitting–Francesca approaches her work with the same enthusiasm she reserves for her favourite books. “At Leonardo,” she says, “I was able to follow Star Tracker projects at 360 degrees: first as a systems engineer, then for the algorithmic part and, finally, coordinating the engineering team. Now I am becoming passionate about market strategies in the Space sector.”
Her passion is evident in both her eyes and her voice. “When I joined the company, I was the youngest in my department of system engineering for attitude sensors. Today, this is no longer the case because, alongside more experienced people, there are younger colleagues. Furthermore, within our group, which is led by a woman, 50% of the team are women.” In a team that she describes as cohesive and welcoming, Francesca also seems to have taken on a parallel leadership role: “I organise parties with my colleagues outside of work. Last Christmas, there were 170 of us!”. When they say that, for some, work is a party.