Projects
Research | Concept Studies | Labs | Papers
>> AI Exoplanet predictor: a machine learning model that predict the probability of a star to host exoplanets | October 2025
Presented at the 2025 NASA International Space Apps Challenge, we developed an AI model that predicts the probability of stars hosting exoplanets. Future and upcoming space missions can rely on these probabilities to prioritize the stars that are most probable to host exoplanets so we can prioritize target observation increasing efficency of observational time and to help in slection of post-processing data . The model exploit the Isolated Forest ML Algorithm and the Autoencoding Neural Networks. We believe this is going to be very useful for next space missions such as Roman Telescope 2027 or even Plato 2026. Our predictive approach will eventually reduce costs and increase mission efficiency by prioritising star targets with a higher probability of hosting exoplanets.
>> Concept study of a generation interstellar spaceship | January-May 2025
Concept study developed for the Project Hyperion design competition by the Initiative for Interstellar Studies. My team won the 1st prize of the competition exporing the feasibility of crewed interstellar travel via generation spaceships, using current and near-future technologies. The idea behind a generation ship is that the initial crew would live, reproduce, and die on the ship, with their descendants continuing the journey until reaching the destination. These starships are often envisioned as self-sustaining ecosystems, featuring agriculture, habitation, and other necessary life-support systems to ensure survival across multiple generations. In our research and design exploration our multidisciplinary team aimed to include and integrate in the process all relevant areas of knowledge that could possibly drive the creation of an interstellar starship ark. Engineering, physics, biology, artificial intelligence, cybernetic, urban architecture, psychology, anthropo-sociological and teleological disciplines are among the disciplines that we encompassed in our research.
>> Preliminary Design Review of a Lunar space mission | May - October 2024
Master SEEDS final presentation @ ESA - ESTEC (European Space Research and Technology Centre) Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) of the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) of the mission DEMETRA (Demonstration of Experimental Martian Exploration Technologies in a Relevant Architecture).
> Adapting lunar technologies for the Martian environment - IAC 2024 - Milan
> DEMETRA (Demonstration of Experimental Martian Exploration Technologies in a Relevant Architecture) @ ESA - ESTEC
> DEMETRA - Report
>> Center of mass estimation and calibration strategies for the Next Generation Gravity Mission (NGGM) | October 2023 - April 2024
Research project @ Thales Alenia Space (Turin): as a science performance specialist, I contributed to the development of calibration strategies for the ESA/NASA Next Generation Gravity Mission (NGGM) of the MAGIC constellation. My work involved studying the measurement performance of NGGM’s two mission observables, researching novel approaches to calibration solutions and adapting heritage calibration solutions from flown missions to the precise design characteristics of the NGGM mission.
>> The New Space Propaganda | October - December 2022
This multimedia longform was produced as the final thesis work for the Master in Communication Science (2021/2022) @ SISSA International School. The dream of space exploration is slowly becoming reality, reshaping relations between nations and the way we view the ecosystem of planet Earth.
How space exploration entered the media
- Rocket ranch
- Entering the aerospace arena
- New bets: the frontier is open
- Interplanetary reality show
- Marketing the Moon: the biggest live broadcast in television history
- Musketeers: going to Mars with the help of fans
The imaginary of the new spatial dimension: cooperation or conflict?
- Space Eldorado: resources, asteroids and planets
- The thin line between civil and military
- When science helped diplomacy
- The frontier: laboratory of cooperation or new frontier of domination?
>> Design and construction of a microdosimetric detector for the International Space Station (ISS) | September 2010 - April 2011
MSc Physics thesis project work @ INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare) focused on the design and construction of a microdosimetric detector for the International Space Station (ISS) in order to simulate human tissues to obtain data of the damages provoked by ionizing radiation inside the habitable modules. I was involved in the scientific design, configuration of the device and the technical and electronic testing of the detector’s components in the INFN laboratories. Microdosimetric detectors can accurately measure the spectrum and intensity of different types of radiation, providing information on the resulting biological effects.
Astronauts in the International Space Station experiment high doses of radiation during their 6-months missions. This high radio pollution from the Sun's radiation could cause severe illness and sickness at organs and tissues of the human body. The design of appropriate detectors to simulate human-body tissues (like skin or muscles) can be achieved with appropriate materials that have the same pattern of interaction with the radiation as the human body. Microdosimetric detectors can then measure spectrum and intensity of different types of radiation giving informations on the resulting biological effects. Different types of ionizing radiations are being studied in this thesis accordingly to the same radiation pattern encountered aboard the ISS. Designing and configuration of the electronic of the device has been conducted in the laboratory together with the configuration of the instrument. Exposure of the detector to external radioactive sources has been performed in order to measure the doses of different types of exposures. In this way has been possible to create a detector capable to evaluate doses of radiation experimented in the same way of that of human tissues.
