Yirui Wang was born in Qingdao, China. He accomplished his Bachelor’s Degree in Flight Vehicle Design & Engineering from the Dalian University of Technology (DUT) in July 2017. Since September 2017, he is a PhD student in the National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), with the thesis titled “Optimal Trajectory Design for Asteroid Deflection Missions” (supervisor: Prof. Mingtao Li). He was awarded the National Scholarship for Postgraduates in 2019. In previous research work, he mainly focused on the demonstration of novel asteroid deflection strategies, such as Enhanced Kinetic Impactor and Assembled Kinetic Impactor (presented at the 7^th IAA Planetary Defense Conference). In August 2018, he studied as a visiting student in Israel Institute of Technology (Technion). In Jun 2019, he attended 13^th IAA Low-Cost Planetary Missions Conference (Toulouse, France) with a presentation titled “Single Lunar Flyby for Reducing reentry speed / Reducing capture energy”.

Since August 2021, Yirui is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Early Stage Researcher in the Stardust-R project at the University of Strathclyde (supervisor: Prof. Massimiliano Vasile). His work focuses on intelligent uncertainty treatment in orbital mechanics.

In his spare time, he likes playing the trumpet.

ESR1 Project

The key objectives of the project include:

• to develop computational intelligence techniques for the identification and correlation of anomalies and high risk rare events;
• to develop methods to optimise the resilience of the space environment to catastrophic events in high traffic regimes;
• to develop computational efficient techniques to calculate impact and collision probabilities under mixed aleatory/epistemic uncertainty;
• to develop methods for optimal collision/impact avoidance and disposal maneuvers under uncertainty;
• to study the deployment, replenishment and disposal of large constellations.

Research Output:

Wang Y., Vasile M. Intelligent selection of NEO deflection strategies under uncertainty. Advances in Space Research,  2022. 

Wang Y., Vasile M. Intelligent Decision Support System for NEO Impact Scenarios Identification and Deflection Strategies Selection under Uncertainty., Stardust Network International Conference (STARCON-2), ESA ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands, 2022.

Wang Y., Vasile M. Intelligent Decision Support System for Selecting Asteroid Deflection Strategies under Mixed Aleatory/Epistemic Uncertainties, 3rd IAA Conference on Space Situational Awareness (ICSSA), 2022.

Wang Y., Vasile M. Intelligent decision support system for planetary defense under mixed aleatory/epistemic uncertainties. IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC). IEEE, 1-9, 2022.

Wang Y., Vasile M., Robust Optimisation of NEO Deflection Strategies under Mixed Aleatory and Epistemic Uncertainties. 73rd International Astronautical Congress, IAF, 2022.

Interview for Stardust Podcast.

Sai Abhishek Peddakotla was born on the 22nd of May, 1995 in a traditional weaver's family in Yadiki, a small village in the state of Andhra Pradesh and raised in the several areas of Andhra Pradesh throughout his schooling in India. He is a firm believer in “the law of attraction” and derives his motivation from the curiosity and boundless possibilities in space flight. His hobbies and interests include listening to classical guitar and piano music, an avid aficionado of Japanese anime, football, pencil sketching and a fountain pen enthusiast.

He obtained a bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering (2012-2016) from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, India with a distinction. He obtained a master's degree in Aerospace Engineering specialised in aerodynamics (2016-2018) from the IITK, India where he also earned an Academic Excellence Award for his performance. Majority of his time at IITK during master's degree was oriented towards studying and understanding several particle-based simulation techniques like DSMC and MD under the guidance of Prof. Rakesh Kumar at the Non-equilibrium Flow Simulation Laboratory (NFSL). Before joining his current position, he worked as a “Project Engineer” during 2018-2019 at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK), India with Prof. Rakesh Kumar on several phenomena related to rarefied, re-entry physics from a particle-based computational framework.
Sai Abhishek Peddakotla is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Early Stage Researcher in the Stardust-R project and a PhD candidate at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. His work focusses on the development and implementation of uncertainty based multi-fidelity approaches for the effective and efficient prediction of the demise of space objects during re-entry. Particular emphasis will be given to understand the relevant fragmentation process under the re-entry aero-thermal environment.

ESR2's Project

This work relates to the development of methods and tools for the design and uncertainty quantification of space objects that are due to completely demise during re-entry. The work associated to this post will investigate both the physics of the re-entry process, including possible fragmentations, and the required computational tools to estimate the footprint of the fragments and the probability of a ground impact.

Research Output:

Peddakotla, S.A., Minisci, E., Bi, S., Fossati, M., Vasile, M. Development of an Uncertainty Framework for Risk Analysis During Atmospheric Re-entry. In 2nd International Stardust Conference (STARCON-2), 7-11 November 2022, ESA ESTEC, Netherlands.

Peddakotla, S.A., Morgado, F., Thillaithevan, D., O'Driscoll, D., Santer, M., Maddock, C., Vasile, M. and Fossati, M., 2022, September. Multi-fidelity and multi-disciplinary approach for the accurate simulation of atmospheric re-entry. In 73rd International Astronautical Congress 2022.

Morgado, F., Peddakotla, S.A., Garbacz, C., Vasile, M. and Fossati, M., 2022. Fidelity management of aerothermodynamic modelling for destructive re-entry. The 2nd International Conference on Flight Vehicles, Aerothermodynamics and Re-entry Missions Engineering (FAR), 19-23 June, 2022, Heilbronn, Germany.

Peddakotla, Sai Abhishek, Jie Yuan, Edmondo Minisci, Massimiliano Vasile, and Marco Fossati. A numerical approach to evaluate temperature-dependent peridynamics damage model for destructive atmospheric entry of spacecraft. The Aeronautical Journal (2022): 1-30.

Peddakotla, S.A., Minisci, E. and Fossati, M., 2021. A novel approach for the accurate simulation of re-entry fragmentation. In 72nd International Astronautical Congress 2022.

Kardassi, M.N, Graham, J., Peddakotla, S.A., Jenkins, C., Wilson, A.R., Vasile, M., Initial Conditions of a Novel CubeSat during Atmospheric Re-Entry. In 73rd International Astronautical Congress 2022.

Manzi, M., Peddakotla,  S. A., Stevenson, E., Vasile, M., Minisci, E., Rodriguez-Fernandez, V., Camacho, D.  (2020). Intelligent Atmospheric Density Modelling for Space Operations. Stardust-R Global Virtual Workshop I, Pisa, Italy, 07-10 September 2020.

Anargyros Dogkas was born in 1997 in Athens, Greece. He completed his BSc degree in Physics and his MSc degree in Astrophysics
at the University of Athens in 2019 and 2021 respectively. During his Batchelor's thesis, he studied the secular dynamics
and stability of exoplanetary systems (through the use of linear Laplace-Lagrange theory and nonlinear Hamiltonian
perturbation theory). His Master's thesis was on the topology of magnetic field lines around the equatorial current sheet of a fast rotating pulsar.
His main research interests include Celestial mechanics, Dynamical systems, and Hamiltonian perturbation theory.

Since July of 2022,  Anargyros is a Marie-Curie Early Stage Researcher at the University of Rome (Tor Vergata) within the Stardust-R
project (under the supervision of Prof. Celletti). His work is on the dynamical properties of space debris in orbits with high inclinations
and eccentricities.

ESR3's Project

The study and the development of efficient numerical codes, for the dynamical evolution of space debris around the Earth, and under the influence of different perturbative phenomena (Sun, Moon, SRP, Drag, etc), within different orbital elements regions. More specifically, the study will focus on orbits with high inclinations and eccentricities.

Research Output:

Secular evolution of debris in highly eccentric and inclined orbits. Oral presentation at the Second International Stardust Conference (STARCON-2), 7-11 November 2022, ESA ESTEC, Noordwijk , Netherlands.

Tudor Vartolomei was born in 1995 in Vaslui, Romania. He studied Applied Mathematics at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, from which he graduated in 2019. He had the BSc thesis in the field of Dynamical Systems (Fluid Dynamics) and the MSc thesis in the field of Machine Learning(Statistics and Optimization). His research interests include Celestial Mechanics, Hamiltonian Systems, Perturbation Theory and Numerical Methods. Tudor is currently an Early Stage Researcher in the “Stardust-R” project at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, where he is also a PhD student.
His work focuses on the calculation of proper elements of space debris.

ESR4's Project

Characterization of the populations of space debris by using techniques of perturbation theory (normal forms); study how orbit determination uncertainty propagates for control and mitigation of space debris; implement perturbation theory to extend, to the fully non-linear regime, linear variational methods currently used for determination of the growth in time of separation between nearby orbits.

Research Output:

Celletti, A., Pucacco, G. & Vartolomei, T. Reconnecting groups of space debris to their parent body through proper elements. Sci Rep 11, 22676 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02010-x.

Celletti, A., Pucacco, G. & Vartolomei, T. Proper elements for space debris. Celest Mech Dyn Astr 134, 11 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10569-022-10064-w

Celletti, A., Pucacco, G., & Vartolomei, T. (2022). Back-tracing space debris using proper elements. Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 15(S364), 134-139, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743921322000588.

Celletti, A., Vartolomei, T. Old perturbative methods for a new problem in Celestial Mechanics: the space debris dynamics. Boll Unione Mat Ital (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40574-023-00347-x.

Edoardo Legnaro was born in 1994. He has obtained his Master’s Degree in Mathematics from the Università degli Studi di Padova – Dipartimento di Matematica “Tullio Levi Civita” in July 2018. He accomplished his graduate thesis on “Numerical Contribution to the Hierarchical Three Body Problem” (Advisor: Gabriella Pinzari). His work provided a numerical investigation of the motions of the planar hierarchical three body problem, regarded as a perturbation of the integrable planar two fixed centre problem. In this approach, a second order normal form was computed, and the associated phase portraits were provided for both the first and the second order normal form approximations. These were compared to the phase portrait for the full (non-averaged) Hamiltonian of the two fixed centre problem. He accomplished his 3-year Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics in the same department in 2016, with a diploma thesis on a “Perturbative Study of the Euler-Poinsot Rigid Body problem” (thesis advisor: Francesco Fassò). While graduate student, he participated in a seminar consisting of special lectures in Hamiltonian dynamical systems, symplectic geometry and symplectic topology (speakers: Arbaud, Benedetti, Fathi, Humilière). He has a Diploma in Classical Guitar from the Conservatorio Statale di Musica “C. Pollini” di Padova (2016) and is he has made guitar performances in several countries in Europe.

Since October 2019, he works as Early Stage Researcher of the project Stardust-R, holding the ESR5 position at the Research Center for Astronomy and Applied Mathematics of the Academy of Athens. His work is on the characterization of the long-term resonant dynamics and chaotic diffusion of space debris.

ESR5’s Project

To study the long-term diffusion of space debris within the chaotic layers produced by overlapping resonances at altitudes between 3 and 7 Earth radii (covering mostly the MEO and GEO domains); To provide analytical tools for the quantification of the diffusion rate, based on estimates of the size of the leading remainder terms of the normal form; To identify initial conditions leading to orbits undergoing nearly-ballistic motion along resonances; To propose mitigation strategies for space debris exploiting the fastest (hyperbolic) directions in phase space where resonant diffusive dynamics takes place.

Research Output:

Daquin, J., Legnaro, E., Gkolias, I. et al. A deep dive into the 2g+h resonance: separatrices, manifolds and phase space structure of navigation satellites. Celest Mech Dyn Astr 134, 6 (2022),  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10569-021-10060-6.

Legnaro, Edoardo, and Christos Efthymiopoulos. A detailed dynamical model for inclination-only dependent lunisolar resonances. Effect on the “eccentricity growth” mechanism. Advances in Space Research (2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2022.07.057.

Talks:

Stardust-R Training School III on Space Environment Stability and Resilience, University Alexandru Ioan Cuza of Iasi, Iasi, RO, 15th -19th Mar 2021 (virtual).
Stardust-R Training School II (TS-II) on Space Traffic Management and Resilient Space Environment, DLR, DFKI, Strathclyde, 13th -17th Sep 2021 (virtual).
Talk at AUTH, Thessaloniki, GR, 2th Nov 2021 (virtual).
IAU Symposium 364, “Multi-scale (time and mass) dynamics of space objects”, University Alexandru Ioan Cuza of Iaşi, Iaşi, Romania, 18th – 22nd Oct 2021 (virtual).
Talk at Academy of Athens, RCAAM, 30th Nov 2021 (virtual).
Stardust-R Local Training Workshop II (LTW-II), Delft University of Technology & HyperionTechnologies BV, Delft, ND, 21th -23th Feb 2022 (virtual).
Talk at Airbus Defense & Space, Toulouse, FR, 19th Apr 2022.
Talk at CNES, Toulouse, FR, 25th Apr 2022.
KePASSA 2022, Key topics in orbit propagation applied to Space Situational Awareness, University of La Rioja, Logroño, SP, 22th -24th Jun 2022.
CELMEC VIII, Università Roma Tor Vergata Rome, IT, 22th – 5th-9th Sep 2022.
STARCON 2 – Stardust International Conference, ESA European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk, NL, 7-11 Nov 2022.

Roberto Paoli was born in Pisa, Italy but he has lived for most of his life in Livorno, a city on the west coast of the Italian peninsula.

He obtained a Master's degree in Mathematics from the University of Pisa in 2019, with a master thesis titled “Chaos in the Anisotropic Kepler Problem”, under the supervision of Prof. Claudio Bonanno.
During his time at the University of Pisa he was part of the Physical Mathematics Working Group of the Department of Mathematics, and he took part in activities such as the Settimana Matematica (Mathematical Week), an outreach activity for high school students.

In the summer of 2019 he was selected as an ESR in the Stardust-R Project, and he was admitted in the PhD program at the Alexander Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania, where he is currently living.

His research focuses mainly on Hamiltonian systems, Perturbation Theory and their applications to Celestial Mechanics, such as the dynamics of space debris or the motion of a body near an irregularly shaped object.

In his spare time he likes to play music, read and skateboarding.

ESR6's Project

Design disposal orbits through dynamical studies based on the determination of regular and chaotic regions in the parameter space and orbital coordinates; Analyse the dynamics associated to objects with high area-to-mass ratio; Study the dynamics of space debris around asteroids as a generalization of the analysis around the Earth to objects with highly irregular shapes; Disseminate the results obtained.

Research Output:

Roberto Paoli, Analytical and Numerical Estimates for Solar Radiation Pressure Semi-secular Resonances, Advances in Space Research, 2023.

Laino, M. A., Wilson, A. R., Vasile, M., Paoli, R., Gales, C., A Transport Network for In-Orbit Recycling Exploiting Natural Dynamics, in Proceedings of 73rd International Astronautical Congress, 2022. 

Peñarroya, P. and Paoli, R., Orbit propagation around small bodies using spherical harmonic coefficients obtained from polyhedron shape models, IAU Symposium, vol. 364, pp. 203–210, 2022.

Peñarroya, P. and Paoli, R., Orbit propagation around small bodies using spherical harmonic coefficients obtained from polyhedron shape models., in 7th IAA Planetary Defense Conference,  2021. 

Peñarroya, P., Vyas, S., Paoli, R., & Kajak, K. M. Survey of Landing Methods on Small Bodies : Benefits of Robotics Manipulators to the Field. International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (i-SAIRAS),  2020.

STARCON2 – Stardust-R Final Conference, European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk (Netherlands), 7 – 11 November 2022, Oral presentation: An overview of the resonances arising from the coupling of the Earth’s oblateness with the solar radiation pressure effect.

CELMEC VIII – International Meeting on Celestial Mechanics, University of Roma Tor Vergata (Italy), 5 – 9 September 2022, Oral presentation: Resonances arising from the interaction of the Earth’s oblateness with the Solar third-body and radiation pressure effects.

I-CELMECH Workshop – Theory, models and simulations in Celestial Mechanics, Univer-sity of Pisa (Italy), 14 – 16 June 2022, Oral presentation: Analysis of Solar Radiation Pressure semi-secular resonances.

Multiscale (time and mass) dynamics of space objects, IAU Symposium 364, University Alexandru Ioan Cuza of Iasi (Romania), 18 – 22 October 2021, Oral presentation: Orbit propagation around small bodies using spherical harmonic coefficients obtained from polyhedron shape models, with Pelayo Peñarroya.

Space Traffic Management and Resilient Space Environment – Stardust-R Global Virtual Workshop II, Online Conference, 13 – 17 September 2021, Oral presentation: Investigations on the solar radiation pressure semi-secular resonances for space debris.

Asteroid Exploration and Exploitation – Stardust-R Global Virtual Workshop I, University of Pisa (Italy), 7 – 10 September 2020, Oral presentation: The Dynamics around Extended Bodies: Tools and Techniques.

Irene Cavallari was born in 1994 and she was raised in Ferrara (Italy). She obtained a Bachelor degree in Science in aerospace engineering at Politecnico di Milano (Italy), in 2016. Then, she participated at a double degree program at Politecnico di Milano and at ISAE Supaero (Toulouse, France). In France, she has been involved in a project aimed at the development of low-energy transfers from the Moon to Mars through Lyapunov orbits, that was presented during the 27th International Symposium on Space Flight Dynamics, in Melbourne. Moreover, she has worked as an intern at the Centre National des Etudes Spatiales (CNES), where she contributed to the development of an autonomous orbital controller.

From November 2019, Irene is Stardust-R Early Stage Researcher and a PhD candidate of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Pisa, Italy. Her studies focus on the patched integral dynamics to determine if they are suitable to represent more complex dynamical systems.

In her spare time, she loves travelling and reading.

ESR7's Project

Study when a patched integrable dynamics is representative of a more complex one; study how linked integrable solutions can be used in orbit determination; search for a new definition of region of influence of the Earth by studying patching techniques in the restricted three body problem.

Research Output:

Cavallari, I., Grassi C., Gronchi, F.G., Baù, G. & Valsecchi G. A dynamical definition of the sphere of influence of the Earth. Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation. 119, 107091, 2023, submitted.

Cavallari, I., Gronchi, F.G., & Baù, G. On the Sun-shadow dynamics. Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena. 432, 133136, 2022.

Cavallari I., Efthymiopoulos C. Closed form perturbation theory in the restricted three-body problem. Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy. 134, 16, 2022.

Cavallari I., Pucacco G. Bifurcation of frozen orbits in a gravity field with zonal harmonics. Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy. 134, 49, 2022.

Cavallari I., Grassi C., Gronchi G.F., Baù G., Valsecchi G.B., A dynamical definition of the sphere of influence of the Earth, CEDYA – XXVII Congress of differential equations and applications, Zaragoza (Spain), July 2022.

Cavallari I., Grassi C., Gronchi G.F., Baù G., Valsecchi G.B., A dynamical definition of the sphere of influence of the Earth, CELMEC VIII, Rome (Italy), September 2022 .

Cavallari I., Grassi C., Gronchi G.F., Baù G., Valsecchi G.B., A dynamical definition of the sphere of influence of the Earth, STARCON-2, ESTEC (Netherlands), November 2022.

Cavallari I., Efthymiopoulos C. Closed-form perturbation theory in the Sun-Jupiter restricted three body problem without relegation. Proceedings of the Internation Astronomical Union, 15(S364), 113-119, 2021.

Cavallari, I., Gronchi, F.G., & Baù, G. On the Sun-shadow dynamics. I-Celmech seminar, May 2021, 

Cavallari I., Efthymiopoulos C. Closed-form perturbation theory in the Sun-Jupiter restricted three body problem without relegation. Presentation at IAU Symposium 364, Iaşi, Romania, October 2021.

Cavallari, I., Gronchi, F.G., & Baù, G. On the Sun-shadow dynamics. Presentation at The Global Virtual Workshop I, Pisa, Italy, September 2020.

Óscar was born and raised in Barcelona (Spain). He studied a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a master's degree in advanced mathematics and modelling engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).
He is currently finishing a PhD in Applied Mathematics at this same university. His PhD thesis focuses on the analytical and numerical study of Celestial Mechanics problems, in particular, he is studying the relation of the ejection and collision orbits with the global dynamics of the RTBP.

Since November 2019, he works as Early Stage Researcher of the project Stardust-R, holding the ESR8 position at the Università di Pisa (Italy).

ESR8's Project

Apply some of the new initial orbit determination (IOD) methods and create a complete OD pipeline which is able to deal with very large database of observations; include in the existing IOD methods some perturbations, e.g., planetary close approaches for asteroids, Earth oblateness
for debris.

Research Output:

Rodriguez O., Gronchi, G.F., Bau, G., Jedicke, R., Orbit determination by linking tracklets over the years in large data sets, 2022, in preparation.

Rodríguez, Óscar & Gronchi, Giovanni Federico & Baù, Giulio & Jedicke, Robert.  Numerical behavior of the Keplerian Integral methods for initial orbit determination. Icarus. 384. 115080. 10.1016/j.icarus., 2022.115080, Preprint.

G. F. Gronchi, G. Baù, ́O. Rodríguez, R. Jedicke, and J. Moeyens. Generalization of a method by Mossotti for initial orbit determination. Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, 133:41, 2021. Preprint.

Marco Fenucci was born in San Miniato, a small village between Pisa and Firenze. He graduated in Mathematics at the University of Pisa in October 2016. In November 2016, he joined the Ph.D in Mathematics in the same university, under the supervision of Prof. Giovanni Federico Gronchi. In October 2018 he visited the University of Barcelona for a period of four months, collaborating with Prof. Ángel Jorba.

In the summer 2019 he was elected as an ESR in the Stardust-R Project at the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Belgrade. His work will focus on the dynamics and the criticality of small asteroids.

In his spare time he likes running, hiking and reading.

ESR9's Project

Our current knowledge of the orbital and size distribution of a very small asteroids, down to few tens of meters in size may not be fully appropriate. Some available estimations are based only on indirect evidence, such as disruption rate of main belt asteroids. The asteroid belt is also subject to evolutionary processes, but so far, no model has included all the important processes affecting asteroid evolution. Besides, new models still have to be successfully tested against known constraints.

The project will be aiming to better understand the orbital and size distribution of small asteroids, below 100 meters in size. To achieve project's goals the ESR should study dynamical and collisional evolution of asteroids in this size range, combine this in a single self-consistent model, and test the model against all available constraints.

In addition, the ESR will work on characterization of near Earth asteroids and should define a criticality index that provides a measure of how easy the asteroid is to deflect with a given deflection method, and how interesting the asteroid is to explore and to exploit.

Research Output:

M. Fenucci, G. F. Gronchi, B. Novakovic, Maps of secular resonances in the NEO region, accepted (2023), https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.08126

M. Fenucci, G. F. Gronchi, M. Saillenfest, Proper elements for resonant planet-crossing asteroids, Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy 134 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10569-022-10078-4, 

M. Fenucci, B. Novakovi´c, Mercury and OrbFit packages for numerical integration of planetary systems: implementation of the Yarkovsky and YORP effects, Serbian Astronomical Journal 204, 51 (2022), https://doi.org/10.2298/SAJ2204051F.

L. Asselle, M. Fenucci, A. Portaluri, Bifurcations of balanced configurations for the Newtonian n-body problem in R4, Journal of Fixed Points Theory and Applications 24, 22 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1007/s11784-022-00932-1.

M. Fenucci, Local minimality properties of circular motions in 1/rα potentials and of the figure-eight solution of the 3-body problem, Partial Differential Equations and Applications, Volume 3 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1007/s42985-022-00148-5.

M. Fenucci, B. Novakovi´c, The role of the Yarkovsky effect in the long-term dynamics of asteroid (469219) Kamo’oalewa, The Astronomical Journal, Volume 162, Number 6,(2021), https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ac2902.

M. Fenucci and G. F. Gronchi, Symmetric constellations of satellites moving around a central body of large mass, Journal of Dynamics and Differential Equations (2021),  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10884-021-10083-5.

M. Fenucci, B. Novakovi´c, D. Vokoruhlick´y, R. J. Weryk, Low thermal conductivity of the superfast rotator (499998) 2011 PT, Astronomy & Astrophysics 647, A61 (2021),  https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202039628.

G. Lari, M. Saillenfest, M. Fenucci, Long-term evolution of the Galileian satellites: the capture of Callisto into resonance, Astronomy & Astrophysics 639, A40 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202037445.

B. Novakovic, M. Fenucci, Mercury and OrbFit packages for numerical orbit propagation: Implementation of the Yarkovsky and YORP effects, Europlanet Science Congress 2022, Granada, Spain, 18–23 September 2022, EPSC2022-620.

B. Novakovic, M. Fenucci, D. Marceta, D. Pavela, Demystifying Near-Earth Asteroids, Europlanet Science Congress 2022, Granada, Spain, 18–23 September 2022, EPSC2022-159.

M. Fenucci, B. Novakovic, The Asteroid Criticality Index: An Asteroid Ranking to Ease the Planning of Future Space Missions, 53rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, 7-11 March 2022.

M. Fenucci, B. Novakovic, V. Petkovic, 2016 GE1: An Extreme Example of Super-Fast Rotator with Very Low Thermal Inertia, 53rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, 7-11 March 2022.

V. Petkovic, M. Fenucci, B. Novakovic, The extended Hayabusa2 mission target 1998 KY26: another small super-fast rotator with low thermal inertia, European Planetary Science Congress 2021, 13-24 September 2021, EPSC2021-390.

M. Fenucci, B. Novakovic, D. Vokrouhlicky, R. J. Weryk, Unexpected Thermal Properties of the Near-Earth Object (499998) 2011 PT, 52rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, 15-19 March 2021.

2022 STARCON2 – Stardust-R Final Conference, European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk (Netherlands), 7 – 11 November. Oral presentation: A Monte Carlo evolution model of small main belt asteroids. Poster presentation: The Asteroid Criticality Index: a tool for the future exploration of Solar System small bodies.

COOMOT: International workshop on Co-orbital Motion: modeling, understanding and exploitation, CNR-IMATI, Milano (Italy), 28 – 30 March. Oral presentation: The role of the Yarkovsky effect in the long-term dynamics of asteroid (469219) Kamo’oalewa.

Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 53, Virtual Conference, 7 – 11 March. Poster presentation: 2016 GE1: An Extreme Example of Super-Fast Rotator with Very Low Thermal Inertia. Poster presentation: The Asteroid Criticality Index: An Asteroid Ranking to Ease the Planning of Future Space Missions.

2021 Multiscale (time and mass) dynamics of space objects, IAU Symposium 364, University

Alexandru Ioan Cuza of Iasi (Romania), 18 – 22 October. Oral presentation: Proper elements for resonant planet-crossing orbits.

7th IAA Planetary Defense Conference, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, Vienna (Austria), 26 – 30 April. Oral presentation: The low thermal conductivity of the super-fast rotator (499998) 2011 PT

Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 52, Virtual Conference, 15 – 19 March. Oral presentation: Unexpected thermal properties of the near-Earth asteroid (499998) 2011 PT.

2020 Asteroid Exploration and Exploitation – Stardust-R Global Virtual Workshop I, University of Pisa (Italy), 7 – 10 September. Oral presentation: The distribution of small near-Earth objects and the role of the Yarkovsky effect.

Seminars

22/04/2022 Seminar titled “Stardust-R research at the University of Belgrade”, organized within the ESA Planetary Defence Seminars (online presentation).

04/08/2021 Seminar titled “The art of giving presentations”, organized within the Student research practice of the Department of Astronomy of the University of Belgrade.

31/07/2020 Seminar titled “OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 missions: main findings on Bennu and Ryugu”, organized within the Student research practice of the Department of Astronomy of the University of Belgrade.

08/07/2020 Seminar titled “Numerical methods for the computation of symmetric periodic orbits of the N-body problem”, organized by the I-CELMECH project.

Shubham Vyas is an Early Stage Researcher within the Stardust Reloaded Marie Curie ITN at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). Shubham earned his Bachelors in Aerospace Engineering from SRM University in India and MSc from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. His research within the Stardust-R project is focused on developing and experimentally validating real-time control algorithms for space manipulators to be used in On-Orbit Servicing and Active Debris Removal missions. During his bachelors, he worked on developing an air-bearing testbed for free-floating manipulators. For his Master’s thesis, he researched Uncertainty estimation methods in vision-aided space-to-ground teleoperation systems at the Human Robot Interaction Laboratory at ESA-ESTEC. His professional experience includes working as a Software Engineer at the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON). His research interests are Space Robotics, On-orbit Servicing, Hardware-in-Loop Simulation, Satellite Thermal Control, and Teleoperation systems. In his free time, he enjoys playing Table Tennis, Floorball, and travelling.

ESR10' Project

The ESR will work full-time in the field of space robotics towards the goal of developing and experimentally testing control algorithms for an autonomous free-floating manipulator system to capture and manipulate both non-cooperative and cooperative targets.

The main tasks will be:

Development of on-orbit servicing and active debris removal disposal solutions
Development of a real-time control system for a free-floating space manipulator to ensure the execution of a reference trajectory despite disturbances and parameters uncertainty
Development of control strategies to deal with contact interactions in microgravity and their evaluation using an underwater vehicle
Test final concepts on the flat-floor of the orbital robotics lab of ESTEC-ESA.

Research Output:

Vyas, S., Jankovic, M. and Kirchner, F., Momentum based classification for robotic active debris removal. Journal of Space Safety Engineering, 9(4), pp.649-655, 2022. ODO.4271515.

Vyas, S., Maywald, L., Kumar, S., Jankovic, M., Mueller, A. and Kirchner, F., Post-capture detumble trajectory stabilization for robotic active debris removal. Advances in Space Research. 2022. 

Wiebe, F., Babel, J., Kumar, S., Vyas, S., Harnack, D., Boukheddimi, M., Popescu, M. and Kirchner, F., Torque-limited simple pendulum: A toolkit for getting familiar with control algorithms in underactuated robotics. Journal of Open Source Software, 7(74), p.3884, 2022. 

Vyas, S., Wehbe, BIlal., and Kumar, Shivesh., Quaternion based LQR for Free-Floating Robots Without Gravity. In 6th CEAS Conference on Guidance, Navigation, and Control, (EuroGNC-2022), Berlin, CEAS, May. 2022. 

Vyas, S., Jankovic, M. and Kirchner, F., 2022. Momentum based classification for robotic active debris removal. In 71st International Astronautical Congress, (IAC-2020), 12.10.-14.10.2020, Dubai/Online, International Astronautical Federation (IAF), Oct/2020. 

Bredenbeck, A., Vyas, S., Zwick, M., Borrmann, D., Olivares-Mendez, M.A. and Nüchter, A., 2022, October. Trajectory Optimization and Following for a Three Degrees of Freedom Overactuated Floating Platform. In 2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (pp. 4084-4091). IEEE. 

Boukheddimi, M., Harnack, D., Kumar, S., Kumar, R., Vyas, S., Arriaga, O., and Kirchner, F., 2022, October. Robot Dance Generation with Music Based Trajectory Optimization. In 2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (pp. 3069-3076). IEEE. 

Bredenbeck, A., Vyas, S., Zwick, M., Borrmann, D., Olivares-Mendez, M. and Nüchter, A., 2022. Finding and following optimal trajectories for an overactuated floating robotic platform. In 16th Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation, 2022. ESA Noordwijk, Netherlands. 

Koch, C.E.S., Jankovic, M., Natarajan, S., Vyas, S., Brinkmann, W., Bissonnette, V., Germa, T., Turetta, A. and Kirchner, F., 2020. Underwater Demonstrator for Autonomous In-Orbit Assembly of Large Structures. In 15th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (i-SAIRAS). 

F Wiebe, S Vyas, L J Maywald, S Kumar, F Kirchner., RealAIGym: Education and Research Platform for Studying Athletic Intelligence. In Mind the Gap: Opportunities and Challenges in the Transition Between Research and Industry, (RSS-2022), 27.6.-01.7.2022, New York, New York, Robotics Science and Systems, Online Proceedings, 2022. RSS Foundation. 

S Vyas, M Jankovic, and L Maywald. “Stabilization of Post-Capture Detumble Trajectories for Controller Composition”. In Space Traffic Management and Resilient Space Environment Workshop.  Stardust-Reloaded, 2021. 

L Maywald, S Vyas, M Jankovic, and M K Ben-Larbi. “Region of Attraction Estimation for Robotic Spacecraft”. In Space Traffic Management and Resilient Space Environment Workshop.  Stardust-Reloaded, 2021. 

S Vyas. “Towards Sequential Controller Composition for Robotic Active Debris Remival”. In 6th European Space Debris modeling and Remediation workshop, Milan, May. CEAS, 2022. 

S Vyas. “Sequential Controller Composition for Robotic Active Debris Removal”. In 2nd Stardust Conference, Leiden, November. Stardust-Reloaded, 2022. 

P. Peñarroya, S. Vyas, R., Kayak, K.M. and Space, S.L.U., Survey of Landing Methods on Small Bodies: Benefits of Robotics Manipulators to the Field. In The International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (i-SAIRAS). 2020.

Karl Martin Kajak was born in Tallinn, Estonia in 1991.

He obtained a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from Delft University of Technology in 2018. His thesis involved improvements to the control system of a prototype flapping-wing drone known as Delfly Nimble under the supervision of Matěj Karásek, Guido C.H.E. de Croon, and Qiping Chu. In addition, he helped teach dynamics and dynamic simulations at the university. After hours, he was involved in student engineering teams as well as hobby projects with fellow students – notable topics from this period include mechanical designs for the Formula SAE competition, feed system designs for a liquid rocket engine, cryptocurrency mining and building drones.

After graduation, he worked at Delft Dynamics as a development engineer for over a year. There he worked on topics such as a power subsystem for a tethered drone, ultra wideband localization, gimbal stabilization, autopilot software, vision-based navigation, sensor calibration, and more.

He now works at DLR Oberpfaffenhofen with the On Orbit Servicing and Autonomy group of Dr. Heike Benninghoff as an ESR for STARDUST-R, pursuing a PhD degree under the supervision of Jean-Sébastien Ardaens.

His research interests include guidance, navigation, and control of air- and spaceborne robotics, whether it relates to hardware, software, or mathematics.

Hobbies include martial arts, mountainbiking, and computer games.

ESR11 Project

The ESR will work in the field of spaceborne close-proximity navigation towards the goal of developing an embedded navigation system for robust relative state estimation.

The tasks will be:
• Develop algorithms for 3D-reconstruction of a spacecraft.
• Implement robust and accurate methods for 6D pose estimation.
• Fuse several sensors to improve the system performance and robustness.
• Test and validate the algorithms using simulations and experimental facilities.

Research Output:

Kajak, Karl Martin, Close-range relative navigation with EPOS 6D pose estimator. 2nd International Stardust Conference (STARCON-2), 07.-11. Nov. 2022, Noordwijk, NL.

Kajak, Karl Martin and Maddock, Christie and Frei, Heike and Schwenk, Kurt (2021) Segmentation-Driven Spacecraft Pose Estimation for Vision-based Relative Navigation in Space. In: Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress, IAC. 72^nd International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2021), 25.-29. Oct. 2021, Dubai, Vereinigte Arabische Emirate. ISSN 0074-1795.

Peñarroya, S. Vyas, R. Paoli, and K. M. Kajak, Survey of Landing Methods on Small Bodies : Benefits of Robotics Manipulators to the Field, presented at the International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space, 2020.

Emma Stevenson is a Stardust-R Early Stage Researcher based in the AI+DA (Applied Intelligence and Data Analytics) department at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. She is researching how advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques can be applied to automating the decision processes involved in collision avoidance for space debris.

Emma worked for ESA´s Space Debris Office (SDO) at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, as a Young Graduate Trainee for the last two years, and will now be continuing her research into the sustainable use of space. During this time, she worked on orbit determination and catalogue unification, as well as re-entry analysis, space debris environment evolution models and other activities carried out by the SDO. It was her involvement in the development of ESA´s machine learning competition for predicting whether a satellite should perform a collision avoidance manoeuvre, that motivated her to further her research in this area within the Stardust-R programme.

Originally, her background is in Physics, specialising in astrophysics and modelling with a Master´s thesis in gravitational wave detection from supermassive black hole binary systems from the University of Birmingham. During her degree, she carried out an internship at the UK Meteorological Office in software engineering for long-term climate models.

ESR12' Project

The main objectives of this project are:

● To develop machine learning techniques to predict collisions, sequences of close encounters and plan collision avoidance manoeuvres.

● To develop methodologies to estimate the risk of the execution of collision avoidance manoeuvres by fusing simulated and historical scenarios.

● To develop methods to fuse multiple sources of information, with different levels of fidelity and reliability.

● To apply these methodologies to support ground operators.

● To develop visualisation and simulation environments to assess the performance of these methods.

Research Output:

Stevenson, E., Rodriguez-Fernandez, V., Urrutxua, H., Camacho, D. (2023). Benchmarking deep learning approaches for all-vs-all conjunction screening. Advances in Space Research.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2023.01.036 

Stevenson, E., Rodriguez-Fernandez, V., Taillan, C., Urrutxua, H., Camacho, D. (2022). A Deep Learning-based Framework for Operational All-vs-All Conjunction Screening. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Stardust Conference (STARCON2), ESA ESTEC, the Netherlands, 7-11 November 2022. https://indico.cern.ch/event/1158038/contributions/5111986/attachments/2537179/4366879/EStevenson_abstract_STARCON2_2022.pdf

Stevenson, E., Rodriguez-Fernandez, V., Urrutxua, H. (2022). Towards Graph-Based Machine Learning For Conjunction Assessment. In Proceedings of the Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference (AMOS), Maui, Hawaii, 27-30 September 2022. https://amostech.com/TechnicalPapers/2022/Poster/Stevenson.pdf

Stevenson, E., Rodriguez-Fernandez, V., Martinez, R., Camacho, D. (2022). Predicting the Effects of Kinetic Impactors on Asteroid Deflection Using End-To-End Deep Learning. In Proceedings of the IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), IEEE World Congress On Computational Intelligence (WCCI), Padua, Italy, 18-23 July 2022. DOI: 10.1109/CEC55065.2022.9870215. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9870215

Stevenson, E., Rodriguez-Fernandez, V., Urrutxua, H., Camacho, D. (2022). Deep learning for all-vs-all conjunction detection. In Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on Key Topics in Orbit Propagation Applied to Space Situational Awareness (KePASSA), Logroño, Spain, 22-24 June 2022. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/libro?codigo=866643

Sánchez, L., Stevenson, E., Vasile, M., Rodriguez-Fernandez, V., Camacho, D. (2022). An Intelligent System for Robust Decision-Making in the All-vs-All Conjunction Screening Problem. In Proceedings of the 3rd IAA Conference on Space Situational Awareness (ICSSA), Madrid, Spain, 4-6 April 2022. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359603230_IAA-ICSSA-22-0000_An_Intelligent_System_for_Robust_Decision-Making_in_the_All-vs-All_Conjunction_Screening_Problem 

Stevenson, E., Rodriguez-Fernandez, V., Minisci, E., Camacho, D. (2022). A Deep Learning Approach to Solar Radio Flux Forecasting. Acta Astronautica 193 (2022) 595–606, ISSN 0094-5765, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.08.004.

Stevenson, E., Rodriguez-Fernandez, V., Urrutxua, H., Morand, V., Camacho, D. (2021). An Assessment of Machine Learning Techniques for Orbital Conjunction Screening. In Proceedings of the Stardust-R Global Virtual Workshop II on “Space Traffic Management and Resilient Space Environment”, Bremen, Germany, 13-17 September 2021. http://www.stardust-network.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Stardust-R-GVW-II_Book_of_Abstracts.pdf

Stevenson, E., Rodriguez-Fernandez, V., Urrutxua, H., Morand, V., Camacho, D. (2021). Artificial Intelligence for All vs. All Conjunction Screening. In Proceedings of the 8th European Conference on Space Debris, Darmstadt, Germany, 20-23 April 2021. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351713223_Artificial_Intelligence_for_All_vs_All_Conjunction_Screening, http://oa.upm.es/67167/

Stevenson, E., Rodriguez-Fernandez, V., Minisci, E., Camacho, D. (2020). A Deep Learning Approach to Space Weather Proxy Forecasting for Orbital Prediction. In Proceedings of the 71st International Astronautical Congress (IAC), The CyberSpace Edition, 12-14 October 2020. http://oa.upm.es/64345/, https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/74398

Mattia Pugliatti was born in Rho, a small town in the outskirts of Milan.

He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering at Politecnico di Milano in 2015. He then continued his studies at TU Delft where he obtained a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering in 2018. During his master studies, he performed a 5 months internship at the Future Programs department at Airbus Defense and Space in Friedrichshafen, working on mission design of low-cost asteroid impactor demonstration mission. He performed his master’s thesis on the Extended Tisserand-Poincaré graph for trajectory design in multi-body systems as a visiting student at Kawakatsu laboratory in ISAS/JAXA for 9 months. During his visiting period, he also worked on the trajectory design of EQUULEUS and DESTINY missions. After the studies he worked for 1 year at GMV in Madrid, where he took part in the GNC tasks of the phase B1 of the HERA mission.

From fall 2019 Mattia is a Stardust-R Early Stage Researcher and Ph.D. candidate at Politecnico di Milano. His work will be focused on small bodies exploration and exploitation with interplanetary CubeSats.

He loves to travel, like to play tennis and listen to music.

ESR13's Project

Within Stardust-R, the ESR will cover the activities involving autonomous Guidance, Navigation, and Control of low-resources systems for exploration and exploitation of small bodies.
The scenario considers exploration and required prospection in view of a possible exploitation achieved through specific missions and related science realised with interplanetary CubeSats.
Autonomous deep-space and close proximity navigation, as well as autonomous orbit guidance and control will be the fundamental areas of research. The activities foresee the design and execution of hardware-in-the-loop experiments using breadboards.

Objectives:

• To develop models for the simulation of orbit-attitude motion of under-actuated space systems;
• To formulate novel astrodynamics methods accounting for low-resources, limited authority space systems;
• To assess operations, autonomy, and navigation accuracy of small satellites in the proximity of small bodies;

Study cases:

1) stand-alone, deep-space CubeSat to a minor body,

2) CubeSat released in situ by a mothership about a minor body.

Research Output:

Pugliatti, M., Topputo, F., (2020), Small-Body shape recognition with convolutional neural network and comparison with excplicit features based methods. 1-20. Paper presented at the AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist, Lake Tahoe, California, 9-12 August 2020.

Pugliatti, M., Maestrini, M., Di Lizi, P., Topputo, F., (2021), On-board small-body semantic segmentation based on morphological features with U-net. Paper presented at the 31^st AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting, Charlotte, North Carolina, January 31-Febraury 4 2021.

Pugliatti, M., Topputo, F., (2021), Navigation about irregular bodies through segmentation maps. Paper presented at the 31^st AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting, Charlotte, North Carolina, January 31-Febraury 4 2021.

Ferrari, F., Franzese, V., Pugliatti, M., Giordano, C., Topputo, F., (2020), Preliminary mission profile of Hera’s Milani CubeSat. Advances in Space Research, 67, 6, 2010-29 (2021).

F. Ferrari, V. Franzese, M. Pugliatti, C. Giordano, F. Topputo, Trajectory Options for Hera’s Milani CubeSat Around (65803) Didymos, Journal of Astronautical Sciences, 196. Preprint.

Peñarroya, P., Pugliatti, M., Centuori, S., Topputo, F., Using Blender as contact dynamics engine for CubeSat landing simulations within impact crater on Dimorphos, 7^th IAA Planetary Defense Conference, Vienna, 2021

C. Bottiglieri, F. Piccolo, A. Rizza, C. Giordano, M. Pugliatti, V. Franzese, F. Ferrari, F. Topputo, Trajectory design and orbit determination of Hera’s Milani CubeSat, AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, Big Sky, 2021.

F. Topputo, F. Ferrari, V. Franzese, M. Pugliatti, C. Giordano, A. Rizza, C. Bottiglieri, F, Picollo, The Hera Milani CubeSat Mission , 7^th IAA Planetary Defense Conference, Vienna, 2021.

Ferrari, Fabio & Franzese, Vittorio & Pugliatti, Mattia & Giordano, Carmine & Topputo, Francesco.  Preliminary mission profile of Hera’s Milani CubeSat. Advances in Space Research. 67. 10.1016/j.asr.2020.12.034, 2021.

Peñarroya, Pelayo & Pugliatti, Mattia & Ferrari, Fabio & Centuori, Simone & Topputo, Francesco & Vetrisano, Massimo & Sanjurjo-Rivo, Manuel.  CubeSat Landing Simulations on Small Bodies using Blender. Advances in Space Research. 10.1016/j.asr.2022.07.044 2022.

Pugliatti, Mattia & Piccolo, Felice & Topputo, Francesco. Object Recognition Algorithms for the Didymos Binary System, Proceedings of AII, 2022.

Mattia Pugliatti, Hardware-in-the-loop simulation framework for CubeSats proximity operations: application to the Milani mission, Proceedings of IAC, 2022.

Mattia Pugliatti, Design of the vision-based GNC subsystem of Hera’s Milani mission, Proceedings of IAC, 2022.

Buonagura, Carmine & Pugliatti, Mattia & Franzese, Vittorio & Topputo, Francesco & Zeqaj, Aurel & Zannoni, Marco & Varile, Mattia & Bloise, Ilaria & Fontana, Federico & Rossi, Francesco & Feruglio, Lorenzo & Cardone, Mauro.  Deep Learning for Navigation of Small Satellites about Asteroids: an Introduction to the DeepNav Project, Proceedings of AII, 2022.

Bottiglieri, Claudio & Piccolo, Felice & Rizza, Antonio & Pugliatti, Mattia & Franzese, Vittorio & Giordano, Carmine & Ferrari, Fabio & Topputo, Francesco, MISSION ANALYSIS AND NAVIGATION ASSESSMENT FOR HERA'S MILANI CUBESAT, Proceedings of 4S Symposium, 2022.

Buonagura, Carmine & Pugliatti, Mattia & Topputo, Francesco. Procedural Minor Body Generator Tool for Data-Driven Optical Navigation Methods, Proceedings of 6^th CEAS conference on GNC, 2022.

Pugliatti, Mattia & Franzese, Vittorio & Rizza, Antonio & Piccolo, Felice & Bottiglieri, Claudio & Giordano, Carmine & Ferrari, Fabio & Topputo, Francesco. Design of the On-Board Image Processing of the Milani Mission, 44^th AAS&GNC conference, 2022.

Piccolo, Felice & Pugliatti, Mattia & Panicucci, Paolo & Topputo, Francesco.  Toward Verification and Validation of the Milani Image. Processing of 44^th AAS&GNC conference, 2022.

Panicucci, Paolo & Pugliatti, Mattia & Franzese, Vittorio & Topputo, Francesco. Improvements and Applications of the DART Vision-Based Navigation Test-Bench TinyV3RSE, Processing of 44^th AAS&GNC conference, 2022.

Pugliatti, Mattia & Rizza, Antonio & Piccolo, Felice & Franzese, Vittorio & Bottiglieri, Claudio & Giordano, Carmine & Ferrari, Fabio & Topputo, Francesco, The Milani mission: overview and architecture of the optical-based GNC system, Proceedings of AIAA SciTech Forum, 10.2514/6.2022-2381, 2022.

Pugliatti, Mattia & Franzese, Vittorio & Topputo, Francesco. (2022). Data-Driven Image Processing for Onboard Optical Navigation Around a Binary Asteroid. Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets. 59. 1-17. 10.2514/1.A35213.

Pugliatti, Mattia & Panicucci, Paolo & Franzese, Vittorio & Topputo, Francesco. TINYV3RSE: The DART Vision-Based Navigation Test-bench. 10.2514/6.2022-1193, 2022.

Pugliatti, Mattia & Maestrini, Michele. (2022). Small-Body Segmentation Based on Morphological Features with a U-Shaped Network Architecture. Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets. 59. 1-15. 10.2514/1.A35447.

Pugliatti, Mattia; Topputo, Francesco; Design of convolutional extreme learning machines for vision-based navigation around small bodies. arXiv preprint, 2022.

Pugliatti, Mattia; Topputo, Francesco; DOORS: Dataset fOr bOuldeRs Segmentation. statistical properties and blender setup., arXiv preprint, 2022.

Pugliatti, Mattia; Topputo, Francesco; Boulders Identification on Small Bodies Under Varying Illumination Conditions. arXiv preprint, 2022.

Buonagura, Carmine & Pugliatti, Mattia & Topputo, Francesco. Image Processing Robustness Assessment of Small-Body Shapes. The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, 2022.

Pelayo Penarroya was born in Asturias, a region on the north cost of Spain, in 1993.
He obtained his BSc and MSc on Aerospace Engineering at the University of Le´on and TU Delft, respectively. As part of his MSc, he completed his internship at OHB System AG Bremen in the Mission Analysis and Flight Dynamics team. There, he had the opportunity to work on his MSc Thesis ”Investigation of Convex Residual Penalty Functions for Orbit Determination”. After his MSc defence, he started working as a member of the team in Bremen, where he spent two years. Now, Pelayo is a part of the Stardust-R project in the Mission Analysis and Navigation team at Deimos Space, where he will be researching on ”Intelligent Navigation and Control System for Minor Celestial Body Descent and Ascent”, with the objective of investigating innovative adaptive systems for autonomous landing in harsh environments and developing the descent control and navigation systems required.

ESR14's Project

During this project the ESR will investigate innovative adaptive systems for autonomous landing in harsh environments, will develop descent control and navigation systems at minor bodies accounting for high fidelity environment and system models, and will develop strategies to increase system resilience against unexpected events and uncertainties.
Expected results are about the performance evaluation of innovative landing systems on minor bodies, robust landing navigation and control algorithms, and definition of system requirements for landing on minor bodies.

Research Output:

Peñarroya, P., Centuori, S., & Hermosín, P. (2022). AstroSim: A GNC simulation tool for small body environments. AIAA SCITECH 2022 Forum. 

Peñarroya, P., & Paoli, R. (2021). Orbit Propagation Around Small Bodies Using Spherical Harmonic Coefficients Obtained From Polyhedron Shape Models. 7th IAA Planetary Defense Conference. 

Peñarroya, P., & Paoli, R. (2021). Orbit propagation around small bodies using spherical harmonic coefficients obtained from polyhedron shape models. Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 15, 203–210. 

Peñarroya, P., Paoli, R., Centuori, S., Sanjurjo-Rivo, M., & Gales, C. (2021). Orbit Propagation Around Small Bodies Using Spherical Harmonic Coefficients Obtained From Polyhedron Shape Models. Multi-Scale (Time and Mass) Dynamics of Space Objects. IAU Symposium 364 – Multiscale (time and mass) dynamics of space objects, Iasi, Romania.

Peñarroya, P., Pugliatti, M., Centuori, S., & Topputo, F. (2021). Using Blender As Contact Dynamics Engine For Cubesat Landing Simulations Within Impact Crater On Dimorphos. 7th IAA Planetary Defense Conference. 

Peñarroya, P., Pugliatti, M., Ferrari, F., Centuori, S., Topputo, F., Vetrisano, M., & Sanjurjo-Rivo, M. (2022). CubeSat Landing Simulations on Small Bodies using Blender. Advances in Space Research.

Peñarroya, S. Vyas, R., Kayak, K.M. and Space, S.L.U., Survey of Landing Methods on Small Bodies: Benefits of Robotics Manipulators to the Field. In The International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (i-SAIRAS). 2020.

Stefano Casini is a Stardust-R ITN Early Stage Researcher at Hyperion Technologies BV and TU Delft, where he is also enrolled as a PhD student in the Space Engineering department. His current work involves the design and validation of autonomous navigation and AOCS systems for deep-space CubeSats. He obtained a BSc in Aerospace Engineering and then a MSc in Space and Astronautical Engineering with honors (cum laude), both from Sapienza University of Rome, from which he also received the 2019 excellent graduate award. He participated two times to the Erasmus+ program: first at Universidad Carlos III of Madrid, Spain, during his 3rd BSc year and then at Instituto Superior Técnico of Lisbon, Portugal, during his 2nd MSc year. He has been an intern at the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) both for his BSc and MSc thesis: the BSc thesis work focused on mapping and georeferencing lunar of landing sites for laser ranging purposes, while the MSc thesis work focused on the thermal analysis of a spherical laser ranged satellite. After his studies, he has been a post-graduate scholarship holder at INFN, where he continued his thermal analysis work in coupling with mechanical design and testing. He published two journal papers: ‘A Preliminary Design of a Mission to Triton: A Concurrent Engineering Approach’ and ‘Thermal Influence of the Screw Axial Load on a 1-mm Accuracy Laser Ranged Satellite’, excerpt from the MSc thesis, first presented at the 15th PEGASUS conference. In the spare time, he likes playing guitar, doing sports and travelling with his camera.

ESR15's Project

The high-level objective of this project is to address the growing need for a sustainable exploration of space, the resilience of the space environment, the threats and opportunities coming from asteroids and comets and the compelling need for properly trained specialists who can tackle these issues.

Research Output:

Casini, Stefano, et al., Towards the Use of Commercial-off-the-Shelf Small-Satellite Components for Deep-Space CubeSats: a Feasibility and Performance Analysis. SmallSat 2020-34th Small Satellite Conference, Logan (UT), (2020). 

Casini, Stefano, et al., Autonomous deep-space CubeSat: where we are and where we are going. Stardust-R Global Virtual Workshop I, Pisa (IT), (2020).

Casini, Stefano, et al., Autonomous Line-of-Sight Navigation using Micro Star Trackers: a Sensitivity and Robustness Analysis. Stardust-R Global Virtual Workshop II, Bremen (DE), (2021).

Casini, Stefano, et al., Novel 3U stand-alone cubesat architecture for autonomous near earth asteroid fly-by. Aerospace 8(1), 9, (2020). 

Casini, Stefano, et al., Line-of-Sight Navigation Observability Analysis for Near Earth Asteroid Exploration with CubeSat. 73rd International Astronautical Congress,  Paris (FR), (2022). 

Casini, Stefano, et al., Design and Simulation of High-Accuracy Star-Trackers Algorithms for Autonomous Line-of-Sight Navigation. Stardust-R Conference II, Noordwijk (NL) (2022).

Casini, Stefano, et al., Combined Crosslink Radiometric and Optical Navigation for Distributed Deep-Space Systems. Stardust-R Conference II, Noordwijk (NL) ,(2022).

Casini, Stefano, et al., On line-of-sight navigation for deep-space applications: A performance analysis. Advances in Space Research, (2022).