October 14th, 2015 – The President of the Italian Space Agency, Roberto Battiston, was appointed Full member and Academic of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) – an institution founded in 1960 in Stockholm which gathers academics from 65 different countries – in the section “Basic Sciences”. The president of the IAA, Madhavan Nair, confirmed the role during the 66th edition of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), in which the same Battiston’s represents Italy, which will close on Friday October 16 in Jerusalem. The theme for the industry event of the year – which brings together in the Israel Convention Center hundreds of scientists, industry representatives, stakeholders and decision makers of the geopolitical world – has been identified in the claim “Space – The Gateway for Mankind’s Future.” And among the topics of the program there is also Mars, its exploration and the search for common strategies for this purpose. On the issue, NASA insisted on a panel with all key agency heads: in the front row, there are the United States, the European Space Agency and Russia, as well as Japan, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. (Red)