US embassy cable - 05ROME1027

UNCLAS  ROME 001027 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPT FOR OES/SAT AND EUR/WE (ADAMS/FETCHKO) 
NASA HQ FOR A.D. SOFGE AND T.JENS FEELEY, PARIS FOR NASA 
REP DR. J.DON MILLER, DEPT. PLEASE PASS TO NSF 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TSPA, KSCA, IT 
SUBJECT:  ITALIAN NGO PROPOSES NEW COLLABORATION TO REALIZE 
"MOON BASE ITALIA" 
 
1.  This is an action request.  Please see paragraph 2. 
 
SUMMARY AND ACTION REQUEST: 
--------------------------- 
 
2.  On March 4, Embassy Economic and Science officers met 
with an Italian NGO planning a meeting in Venice on May 26- 
27, 2005 to explore possible U.S.-Italian-EU-Russian 
cooperation to design and construct a manned base on the 
moon.  The NGO, "Solidarity and Development," claims to 
enjoy political support from members of the government, the 
Italian scientific research community, and the powerful 
defense industrial conglomerate, Finmeccanica.  Following 
the May invitation-only meeting to present the initiative 
and discuss feasibility, Solidarity and Development 
proposes holding a follow-on meeting in Washington in 
October to refine technical requirements and agree on a way 
forward. ACTION REQUEST:  Please advise whether NASA or 
other USG agency representative would be interested in 
attending the May 26-27 meeting in Venice, or otherwise 
exploring this initiative further.  Please see comment, 
para 11.  Embassy Rome POC information is in para 12.  END 
SUMMARY AND ACTION REQUEST. 
 
3.  On March 4, Economic and Science officers met with 
Francesco Mazzuca, President of "Solidarity and 
Development," a technology and innovation NGO founded in 
2001 to develop and present action proposals to 
policymakers on a broad range of issues affecting modern 
society.  Mazzuca, a high-ranking advisor in the powerful 
defense industrial conglomerate, Finmeccanica, claims to 
enjoy Prime Minister Berlusconi's patronage for the 
initiative in the form of support from his diplomatic 
adviser, Giovanni Castellaneta.  (NOTE:  In fact, we agreed 
to a meeting at the Embassy at the specific request of one 
of Castellaneta's deputies.  END NOTE)  Mazzuca has 
contacted the head of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the 
Minister of Education, Universities and Research, Letizia 
Moratti, and influential scientific researchers about the 
project.  Dr. Walter Pecorella, Vice President of the 
National Institute of Astrophysics, accompanied Mazzuca to 
the Embassy meeting. 
 
REVITALIZING U.S.-ITALY SPACE COOPERATION: 
------------------------------------------ 
-    "MOON BASE ITALIA" 
----------------------- 
 
4.  Mazzuca explained that Solidarity and Development's 
proposal builds on Italy's world-class national and 
international space program, noted for successes such as 
the San Marco satellite and participation in the 
International Space Station and the Cassini-Huygens Saturn 
mission.  Inspired by President Bush's Space Exploration 
Vision Program and High Frontier, Inc. Director Klaus P. 
Heiss' draft paper "A Moonbase of Observatories," 
Solidarity and Development wants to launch an ambitious 
international space exploration proposal to revitalize 
Italy's special relationship with the United States and 
maintain Italy's status as a major contributor to 
international space exploration missions.   Identifying new 
areas for cooperation would also stimulate Italian research 
and industrial activities, and the funding to make them 
happen, something Italy badly needs to reverse declining 
economic competitiveness and the sliding GDP growth rate 
(1.2 percent in 2004).  Solidarity and Development proposes 
to hold two invitation-only workshops for Italian, U.S., 
European, and Russian scientists and government 
representatives to discuss how to form an international 
effort to construct a manned base on the moon.  They have 
named the initiative "Moon Base Italia." 
 
VENICE MEETING MAY 26-27 
------------------------ 
 
5.  Solidarity and Development will sponsor a two-day 
invitation-only workshop for 130 participants to present 
the "Moon Base Italia" initiative and identify areas 
critical to mission success.  Most of the speakers would be 
American and Italian, but participants would also come from 
Europe and Russia, primarily to listen.  This first meeting 
would seek to define the "take-off point" for the proposal 
 
 
and elicit any "objections in principle" to moving forward. 
Selected government and industry representatives and 
scientists would address the following areas: 
 
--  The type of base to design; 
--  The type of transportation system to use; 
--  The relationship between the moon base and other solar 
system exploration programs, including how the project 
would impact on the International Space Station operations; 
--  Technical microsystems necessary for the mission; 
--  Scientific and experimental objectives and activities 
to pursue on the moon, along with anticipated technological 
and industrial spin-offs; and 
--  Preliminary economic considerations. 
 
6.  Solidarity and Development, together with American 
representatives, if they are interested, would organize the 
May workshop and choose the speakers.  The Europeans and 
Russians would participate on "technical matters."  The 
Venice meeting would seek to define a cooperative structure 
among the United States, the EU, and Russia, in which Italy 
would have a coordinating role to implement the project. 
Three committees would be formed (Steering, Scientific, and 
Organizing Committees).  Mazzuca provided only a sketchy 
idea of who would be represented on the committees, but we 
noted he had included USG agencies in his preliminary 
suggestion for Steering Committee participation. 
 
WASHINGTON FOLLOW-ON MEETINGS IN OCTOBER ? 
------------------------------------------ 
 
7.  Solidarity and Development also proposes a two-day, 
follow-on workshop in Washington in October, 2005.  Italy 
and the United States would organize the meeting and choose 
the speakers.  The Washington workshop would review the 
findings of the Venice meetings, answer any "objections on 
principle" expressed in May, and settle on a way forward in 
all the critical areas:  technical, organizational and 
political.  Mazzuca noted that Solidarity and Development 
would work with the Italian Embassy and Finmeccanica's 
Washington office on meeting logistics. 
 
INSPIRATION FROM U.S. DRAFT PROPOSAL 
------------------------------------ 
 
8.  Mazzuca has been in contact with Klaus P. Heiss, 
Director of High Frontier, Inc., and author of a major 
economic feasibility study for the ISS in 1971.  In 
response to President Bush's Space Exploration Vision, 
Heiss has written a draft document entitled "A Moonbase of 
Observatories:  The First Sustained Human Base Outside 
Earth at the South Pole of the Moon by 2020 with Private 
and International Participation."  This appears to be the 
inspiration for "Moon Base Italia."  The draft recommends 
that the USG (NASA) establish a "Lunar Enterprise 
Development Company" on the Intelsat model, to attract 
substantial private sector participation in all 
technological and scientific activities of the project. 
 
UNCERTAIN ROLES FOR ITALIAN/EUROPEAN 
-         SPACE AGENCIES 
------------------------------------- 
 
9.  Emboffs queried Mazzuca on the Italian Space Agency's 
participation in "Moon Base Italia."  He replied that ASI 
would certainly have a role, and that he had spoken with 
ASI President Dr. Sergio Vetrella to urge ASI involvement. 
Mazzuca also assured us that he had spoken personally with 
the head of the European Space Agency (ESA), but that Italy 
intends to take the lead to move the proposal forward 
rapidly, rather than rely on the more time-consuming ESA 
process. 
 
POLITICAL BACKING AND FUNDING 
----------------------------- 
 
10.  The deputy to Berlusconi's diplomatic advisor 
emphasized that Mazzuca is well connected politically with 
the Union of Christian Democrats of the Center (UDC), the 
small centrist partner in the government coalition. 
Mazzuca is science and technology advisor to both Marco 
Follini, UDC Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, and to 
 
 
Rocco Buttiglione, UDC President and the Minister for 
European Union Policies.  Mazzuca himself expressed 
confidence during our meeting that, if the initiative went 
forward, "Moon Base Italia" implementers would have the 
political backing to secure GOI funding in the form of "ad 
hoc" appropriations to the general budget.  There is 
precedent for this in recent years.  Extra-budgetary 
funding has supported Italian participation in the Cassini- 
Huygens Saturn mission and the ALMA (the Atacama Large 
Millimeter Array) Project, an international partnership 
among the United States National Science Foundation, 
Canada, Spain, and the European Southern Observatory to 
construct the world's largest and most sensitive radio 
telescope in Chile. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
11.  Emboffs were not familiar with Solidarity and 
Development until Mazzuca was referred to us by the Prime 
Minister's office -- not a bad introduction.  However, 
given Mazzuca's political ties to one of the partners in 
the government, and based on his management position in 
Finmeccanica, we believe his NGO's effort to stimulate 
discussion of a possible role for Italy in the next stages 
of U.S.-led international space exploration is serious and 
deserves consideration.  END COMMENT. 
 
12.  Embassy welcomes contact with the Department, NASA or 
other USG agencies interested in this proposal.  Rome POC 
is EST Counselor Jill Byrnes, at unclassified e-mail 
"ByrnesJF(at symbol)state.gov.  Telephone:  (country code 
39) 06-4674-2691.  Fax:  (39) 06-4674-2398. 
SEMBLER 
 
 
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 2005ROME01027 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED