Space Technology Will Protect the Vatican’s Treasures

New space technology isn’t just for traveling into the cosmos—these innovations have applications on Earth, as well. In particular, space technology will protect the Vatican’s treasures, among many other uses. Here’s a sampling:

• International Space Station (ISS) astronauts use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to grow plants. A medical device that relieves muscle and joint pain, stiffness and muscle spasms grew out of research into LED technology developed for space applications.
• Apollo spacecraft fire protection was adapted to improve fire safety on planes and in skyscrapers.
• A nutritional component of infant formula owes a debt to NASA’s research into food for extended space travel.

Medicine, transportation, public safety, computers and agriculture are some of the industries that have made progress by applying space technology. Also on that list: The Catholic Church. The Vatican has partnered with the European Space Agency (ESA) to preserve religious and cultural manuscripts, documents and books.

Books as Far as the Eye Can See

Space technology will protect the Vatican’s treasures as scholars work to preserve one of the world’s most precious libraries. The Vatican’s library is vast: about 80,000 medieval manuscripts and over one million books. Many go back a long, long way. While the library opened in the 15^th century, some of its holdings are nearly 2,000 years old.

Access is an issue. Scholars want to view the collected works, but many of the library’s documents are too fragile to be handled. Even making photocopies would cause damage. The aging process isn’t the only threat, though. In 2016, multiple earthquakes in Italy demonstrated the vulnerability of local structures—even churches—and their contents.

ESA to the rescue. During the 1970s, NASA and ESA developed FITS—flexible image transport system—to share astronomical information between researchers around the world.

In November 2016, ESA and the Vatican Library agreed to collaborate on digital preservation efforts. While FITS was originally created for astronomy, its open-standard approach to storing and preserving scientific data helped demonstrate how long-term digital archives can remain accessible as technology changes.

The Vatican Library’s digitization project uses specialized imaging equipment, archival systems and metadata standards to preserve its collections. ESA’s expertise has helped support the broader challenge of managing and preserving large-scale digital information.

As of 2026, the Vatican Library’s digitization efforts remain ongoing, with thousands of manuscripts and documents made available through its digital collections.

A ‘Miraculous’ Solution

The astronomical imaging system scans Vatican documents and digitally converts them. When complete, the digitization effort is expected to involve tens of millions of pages and require many petabytes of digital storage.

The digitizing process does more than just store words and pictures, however—it also retains information about a document’s size and materials. Preserved data won’t become obsolete as computers change. Instructions for decoding the scanned information are attached to the top of each record.

While FITS is a long-established open standard used by scientists around the world, it offers other advantages to the Vatican:

• No laws limit access to FITS. No single company or country controls it. The system is used by the scientific community and is updated by representatives of the International Astronomical Union.
• FITS is compatible with a wide range of astronomical imaging and data analysis software.
• Because FITS is an open, well-documented format, organizations can continue accessing stored data even as software systems change.

The digitization process is safe for ancient works. Unlike a photocopier, the FITS scanner doesn’t need pages to be pressed flat, instead adjusting to work from a variety of angles. As of 2025, the Vatican has digitized tens of thousands of manuscripts, with work still ongoing.

FITS in Space

Scientists use FITS to store and transfer information, even internationally. The system handles multi-dimensional data collected from many sources, including satellites, crewed spacecraft and planetary probes. FITS also works with images obtained through Earth-based means, such as giant radio telescopes.

Astronomers use FITS to preserve, analyze and share information about numerous space phenomena, including:

• Star creation, expansion and death
• Formation of planets
• Movement of galaxies
• Evidence of the universe’s history

Because FITS is non-proprietary, interested amateurs also can use a variety of open-source and web-based tools to explore data in FITS format. This lets them view and adapt a vast array of images from space and Earth telescopes.

FITS remains an important standard in modern astronomy, with data from major observatories and space missions continuing to be stored in this format. Its longevity helps researchers access valuable scientific records years or even decades after the observations were made.

The Sky’s the Limit

FITS isn’t the first bit of space technology that preserved documents. The Library of Congress and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center joined forces in the 1980s to prevent books from deteriorating. Acidic chemicals in paper keep print crisp and clear, but they also cause pages to fall apart over time. The Library of Congress patented an economical and effective process to remove the troublesome acid. Diethyl zinc, or DEZ, is a chemical that neutralizes acid to prevent future disintegration.

There’s one catch: because DEZ bursts into flame when exposed to oxygen, the process needs to take place in an airless environment. Initial experiments used the method on a small number of books placed inside a pressure cooker.

The library eventually expanded its procedure to 5,000 volumes at Goddard’s facility. Books were placed inside a large vacuum chamber typically reserved to test satellite technology in airless conditions. The session extracted over 600 pounds of moisture, demonstrating the feasibility of large-scale preservation.

Although effective at reducing acidity, the DEZ method was eventually abandoned because handling the chemical was challenging and safer mass-deacidification techniques became available.

During the 1900s, space technology contributed to a physical preservation process for books. By the next century, librarians sought to protect the content of documents through NASA- and ESA-inspired digitization.

The pattern is clear: as international space agencies ramp up efforts towards deep space exploration, it’s possible and even likely that the technology they’ll need to send and receive information at such distances will continue to have far-reaching, Earth-based implications.