Space, “From the Lagoon to the Moon”: Microsoft Space Lab Debuts

Look far, far away: to orbiting space stations and future lunar and Martian outposts. But it could soon lend a 'hand' very close to Venice, opening up "new scenarios also for the industrial reconversion of areas such as Porto Marghera". The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, today inaugurated the Venice Microlife space lab: an experimental platform for the design of chemical-physical and biotechnological systems for the production of energy, wastewater treatment, creation of biorefineries in orbiting space stations and future lunar and Martian outposts, as part of the Biomoon project. A system financed by the Italian Space Agency within the call for experiments on the Moon, on which the GpLab is working.

Microlife is located in Fusina, inside the Green propulsion laboratory of the Veritas Group , the advanced research platform funded by the Ministry of the Environment and the Municipality of Venice, and involves the Universities of Venice and Padua , already partners of GpLab in the Biomoon and Purple B projects of the European Space Agency, and local companies with specific sector expertise. In this context, an agreement was signed between GpLab Veritas and the Eie group company of Mestre, a world leader in the sectors of astronomy, astrophysics and space applications with the development of new space living technologies.

The results that emerged from the experimentation (such as the production of biohydrogen from immobilized bacteria, new foods from microalgae that can also absorb CO2 more effectively than plants, space manufacturing processes with 3D printing) "can open up new scenarios for the industrial reconversion of areas such as Porto Marghera", the Municipality of Venice underlines in a note.