Research, technology, Mars missions and ...

The director's editorial of the February 1st issue of Almanacco della Scienza, the CNR Web magazine, underscores the questions "How many research ideas reach actual exploitation?  Is there a path from theory to practice?  Which is the role of CNR in this respect?".   As a successful example of such path, Almanacco della Scienza features an article on the collaboration between ISTC-CNR and the European Space Agency (ESA) focused on planning and scheduling research. The article's trigger is the fact that 6 years ago there has been the first press release concerning Mexar2 a research product from ISTC that has had a big impact at ESA.  What happened since then?  The current article elaborates again on how Mexar2 is still up and running, and ends up mentioning how that success has enabled a wide collaboration between ISTC and ESA on planning, scheduling and robotics.  A recent survey article on the 10 years of ISTC-ESA achievements appeared on JACIII (October 2011).