Upgrade of the LARES-lab remote controllable thermo-vacuum facility - lab improvements for remote testing and e-learning

The LARES-lab facility was specifically designed to perform tests in simulated space environment on the optical payload of the LAser RElativity Satellite (LARES). Since the facility was intended to perform demanding tests, it was equipped with the best technology available at the time. After the launch of LARES the facility was used both for testing payloads and small university satellites and for didactic activities. Testing in simulated space environment is fundamental for the development of a space mission, so a well equipped facility in a university is a precious resource for teaching. At the moment, room dimension and the location limit the access to the lab to a small number of students per lesson. To fully exploit the didactic potential of the LARES-lab an improvement over the remote control operation of the thermo-vacuum chamber is planned. The project, which has been described in a previous paper, is currently under development. A new device implemented is a robotic arm to manipulate some mechanisms and to gain experience for remote controlling other servo mechanisms. This way both researchers and students can operate the facility remotely with minimal need of on site operations. Once the improvements will be fully operational, LARES-lab will allow access to the laboratory didactic activities to a much larger number of students.