Related papers: MICROSCOPE Satellite and its Drag-Free and Attitud…
We present a multirotor architecture capable of aggressive autonomous flight and collision-free teleoperation in unstructured, GPS-denied environments. The proposed system enables aggressive and safe autonomous flight around clutter by…
We study the vertical structure of a stellar disk obtained from a fully cosmological high-resolution hydrodynamical simulation of the formation of a Milky Way-like galaxy. At the present day, the disk's mean vertical height shows a…
The Magnetic Sail is a space propulsion system that utilizes the interaction between solar wind particles and an artificial dipole magnetic field generated by a spacecraft's coil to produce thrust without the need for additional plasma or…
We present a compact and robust transportable ultra-stable laser system with minimum fractional frequency instability of $1\times10^{-15}$ at integration times between 1 to 10 s. The system was conceived as a prototype of a subsystem of a…
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…
The main focus of the work presented in this thesis is to develop an optimal control based formation flying control strategy for high precision formation flying of small satellites that have restricted computation and storage capacity.…
In general, most of communication satellites were designed to be operated in geostationary orbit. And many of them were designed in prolate dual-spin configuration. As a prolate dual-spin vehicle, they have to be stabilized against their…
We aim at providing a preliminary approach on the dynamics of a spacecraft in orbit about the asteroid (99942) Apophis during its Earth close approach. The physical properties from the polyhedral shape of the target are derived assigning…
In this paper we investigate the opportunities offered by the new Earth gravity models from the dedicated CHAMP and, especially, GRACE missions to the project of measuring the general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect with a new Earth's…
This paper addresses the computation of Delta-V-optimal, safe, relative orbit reconfigurations for satellite formations in a centralized fashion. The formations under consideration comprise an uncontrolled chief spacecraft flying with an…
Agile attitude maneuvering maximizes the utility of remote sensing satellite constellations. By taking into account a satellite's physical properties and its actuator specifications, we may leverage the full performance potential of the…
A Drag-Free CubeSat mission has been proposed to demonstrate the feasibility of a Gravitational Reference Sensor (GRS) with an optical readout for a 3 units (3U) spacecraft. A purely drag-free object is defined by the absence of all…
Miniature Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAV) are very suitable for flying in indoor environments, but autonomous navigation is challenging due to their strict hardware limitations. This paper presents a highly efficient computer vision algorithm…
In this work, we propose an end-to-end Thrust Microstepping and Decoupled Control (TMDC) of quadrotors. TMDC focuses on precise off-centered aerial grasping of payloads dynamically, which are attached rigidly to the UAV body via a gripper…
Spacecraft are vital to space exploration and are often equipped with lightweight, flexible appendages to meet strict weight constraints. These appendages pose significant challenges for modeling and control due to their inherent…
AcubeSAT is an open-source CubeSat mission aiming to explore the effects of microgravity and radiation on eukaryotic cells using a compact microfluidic LoC platform. It is developed by SpaceDot, a volunteer, interdisciplinary student team…
This paper describes dynamic system identification, and full control of a cost-effective vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) multi-rotor micro-aerial vehicle (MAV) --- DJI Matrice 100. The dynamics of the vehicle and autopilot controllers…
The exponential rise in small-satellites and CubeSats in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) poses important challenges for future space traffic management. At altitudes of 600 km and lower, aerodynamic drag accelerates de-orbiting of satellites.…
The WMAP satellite has completed 3 years of observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation. The 3-year data products include several sets of full sky maps of the Stokes I, Q and U parameters in 5 frequency bands, spanning 23 to…
Aerial manipulation requires force-aware capabilities to enable safe and effective grasping and physical interaction. Previous works often rely on heavy, expensive force sensors unsuitable for typical quadrotor platforms, or perform…