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Space interferometry is the inevitable endpoint of high angular resolution astrophysics, and a key technology that can be leveraged to analyse exoplanet formation and atmospheres with exceptional detail. However, the anticipated cost of…
Spacecraft formation flying serves as a method of astronomical instrumentation that enables the construction of large virtual structures in space. The formation-flying interferometry generally requires very-high control accuracy, and…
The ultimate astronomical observatory would be a formation flying interferometer in space, immune to atmospheric turbulence and absorption, free from atmospheric and telescope thermal emission, and reconfigurable to adjust baselines…
The employment of a large area Phase Fresnel Lens (PFL) in a gamma-ray telescope offers the potential to image astrophysical phenomena with micro-arcsecond angular resolution. In order to assess the feasibility of this concept, two detailed…
The capability of maintaining two satellites in precise relative position, stable in a celestial coordinate system, would enable major advances in a number of scientific disciplines and with a variety of types of instrumentation. The common…
The impact of formation flying on interferometry is growing over the years for the potential performance it could offer. However, it is still an open field, and many studies are still required. This article presents the basic principles…
Astrophysical transients have been observed for millennia and have shaped our most basic assumptions about the Universe. In the last century, systematic searches have grown from detecting handfuls of transients per year to over 7000 in 2018…
Autonomous exploration is one of the important parts to achieve the autonomous operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). To improve the efficiency of the exploration process, a fast and autonomous exploration planner (FAEP) is proposed…
In this article, the formation mission design problem for commercial aircraft is studied. Given the departure times and the departure and arrival locations of several commercial flights, the relevant weather forecast, and the expected fuel…
The high mobility of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) enables them to be used in various civilian fields, such as rescue and cargo transport. Path-following is a crucial way to perform these tasks while sensing and collision avoidance are…
The LISA Pathfinder mission will demonstrate the technology of drag-free test masses for use as inertial references in future space-based gravitational wave detectors. To accomplish this, the Pathfinder spacecraft will perform drag-free…
This paper presents a strategy for optimal manoeuvre design of multi-satellite formation flying in low Earth orbit environment, with the aim of providing a tool for mission operation design. The proposed methodology for formation flying…
Flying quadrotors in tight formations is a challenging problem. It is known that in the near-field airflow of a quadrotor, the aerodynamic effects induced by the propellers are complex and difficult to characterize. Although machine…
The Planet Formation Imager (PFI) Project is dedicated to defining a next-generation facility that can answer fundamental questions about how planets form, including detection of young giant exoplanets and their circumplanetary disks. The…
An international group of scientists has begun planning for the Planet Formation Imager (PFI, www.planetformationimager.org), a next-generation infrared interferometer array with the primary goal of imaging the active phases of planet…
Autonomous exploration is a fundamental problem for various applications of unmanned aerial vehicles. Existing methods, however, were demonstrated to insufficient exploration rate, due to the lack of efficient global coverage, conservative…
Safety is always the priority in aviation. However, current state-of-the-art passive fault-tolerant control is too conservative to use; current state-of-the-art active fault-tolerant control requires time to perform fault detection and…
Low-frequency spectral studies of radio pulsars represent a key method for uncovering their emission mechanisms, magnetospheric structure, and signal interactions with the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM). In recent years, more…
The non transparency and severe propagation effects of the terrestrial ionosphere make it impossible for Earth based instruments to study the universe at low radio frequencies. An exploration of the low frequency radio window with the…
The Planet Formation Imager (PFI) project aims to provide a strong scientific vision for ground-based optical astronomy beyond the upcoming generation of Extremely Large Telescopes. We make the case that a breakthrough in angular resolution…