CURA CARPIGNANO — Men and women in white lab coats and hairnets, dark safety glasses perched on their noses, work with practiced confidence under a green light that fills a laboratory packed with futuristic equipment: a tangle of cables, monitors, optical fibers, contoured light sources and precision lasers.

This is not Cape Canaveral. It is a two-stories, pale-colored building baking under the oppressive heat of the Po Valley, in the industrial area of Cura Carpignano. A simple sign on the façade identifies the premises as Bright Solutions’ Headquarters, innovative laser solutions.

And yet there is a connection with NASA’s facilities in the United States — and it has nothing to do with the fact that the two places happen to share a name. In upcoming space missions, beginning with missions to the Moon, the work being done by this small company in the Pavia area could prove crucial.

Founded in 1998 by a group of specialists in the field, Bright Solutions is now one of the most highly regarded and sought-after companies in Italy’s high-tech sector. It develops and manufactures solid-state laser sources.

As Giuliano Piccinno, the company’s president and CEO, explains, Bright Solutions was founded in 1998 as a spin-off of the University of Pavia and now employs around 50 people, most of them specialist technicians, engineers and researchers with PhDs.

Bright Solutions is also one of 12 Italian companies with high innovation potential in the Space Economy, Aerospace, Security and Robotics sectors selected for a business-development and networking program in Silicon Valley. The initiative was organized in San Francisco by Intesa Sanpaolo and Innovit.

“Bright Solutions develops and manufactures solid-state laser sources,” Piccinno explains. “These are laser-light sources that provide the essential engine for a wide range of laser systems across different applications: from industrial micro-machining of materials to medical uses, including surgery, dermatology, pain therapy and vascular surgery, as well as aerospace.”

In aerospace, in particular, the company’s lasers are used to generate the light pulses at the heart of instruments such as LiDAR systems for observing and mapping the Earth and its atmosphere from aircraft and satellites.

“Our lasers are also used in systems for lunar landing and autonomous navigation in space,” the engineer reveals. “They are also used in instruments that can carry out chemical analysis of the lunar soil in situ. High-peak-power pulses illuminate the lunar regolith and break apart its molecules, allowing its composition to be analyzed spectroscopically without having to bring samples back to Earth.”

Similarly, miniaturized laser sources emitting ultraviolet light will soon be used to search for traces of life on Mars.

“Aerospace is a rapidly expanding sector worldwide,” Piccinno says. “For Bright Solutions, our development in this field is the continuation of a path the company has deliberately pursued for more than a decade, through national and international research and development programs.”

But the company’s work extends well beyond space.

The Pavia-based lasers are also used to explore the ocean floor, glaciers and the Earth’s crust. Analyzing materials and the environment is now one of the key growth areas for laser technology.

Bright Solutions also works with leading global manufacturers of LiDAR systems for atmospheric monitoring, as well as with system integrators in the mining sector.

In short, wherever cutting-edge technology and extreme precision are required, Bright Solutions is there — flying the flag for Pavia from Silicon Valley all the way to the Moon.