A SMALL GLANCE TO EARTH FROM SPACE

In 1997 the Italian Space Agency (ASI) started the Science Small Missions (PMS, Piccole Missioni Scientifiche ) program, fulfilling an explicit recommendation included in the Italian National Space Plan. On a competitive basis, at the end of 1998, ASI selected two missions for the first cycle of the program: AGILE, a light gamma-ray telescope, and DAVID, carrying two experiments for signal propagation at high frequencies. The program foresees a launch every two/three years, making use of the two Italian small standard platforms MITA and PRIMA. ASI decided to issue, on February 2000, a new “Call for Ideas†dedicated to Earth Science. Eighteen proposals were submitted to ASI, covering different topics. On October 2000 six proposals have been chosen for a phase A study. At the end of 2001 the third PMS mission will be selected. This paper will present the PMS program, the MITA platform, and will discuss scientific details of the proposals that are carrying on the phase A assessment.