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Recently, there has been a growing interest in the use of a SmallSat platform for the future Lunar Navigation Satellite System (LNSS) to allow for cost-effectiveness and rapid deployment. However, many design choices are yet to be finalized…
Space has emerged as an exciting new application area for machine learning, with several missions equipping deep learning capabilities on-board spacecraft. Pre-processing satellite data through on-board training is necessary to address the…
Modern embedded technology is a driving factor in satellite miniaturization, contributing to a massive boom in satellite launches and a rapidly evolving new space industry. Miniaturized satellites, however, suffer from low reliability, as…
This paper presents a new algorithm for autonomous multitarget tracking of resident space objects using optical angles-only measurements from a spaceborne observer. To enable autonomous angles-only navigation of spacecraft swarms, an…
Despite numerous search campaigns based on a diverse set of observational techniques, exomoons - prospective satellites of extrasolar planets - remain an elusive and hard-to-pin-down class of objects. Yet, the case for intensifying this…
Reachability analysis plays a central role in low-thrust spacecraft trajectory optimization by identifying which target states can be achieved under constraints on time, thrust, and propellant. Classical approaches construct reachable sets…
We present a new space mission concept that is capable of finding, detecting, and tracking 90% of near-Earth objects (NEO) with H magnitude of $\rm H\leq22$ (i.e., $\sim$140 m in size) that are potentially hazardous to the Earth. The new…
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…
Advances in space weather science and small satellite (SmallSat) technology have proceeded in parallel over the past two decades, but better communication and coordination is needed among the respective worldwide communities contributing to…
A radio telescope placed in lunar orbit, or on the surface of the Moon's farside, could be of great value to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). The advantage of such a telescope is that it would be shielded by the body of…
Space debris has become a critical issue, with debris in orbit surpassing active satellites, posing significant risks to space sustainability. Payloads or rocket bodies discarded post-mission in LEO without orbital control are major…
The successes of previous and current Mars rovers have encouraged space agencies worldwide to pursue additional planetary exploration missions with more ambitious navigation goals. For example, NASA's planned Mars Sample Return mission will…
Femtocell base station (BS) is a low-power, low-price BS based on cellular communication technology. It is expected to become a cost-effective solution for improving the communication performance of indoor users, whose traffic demands are…
Satellite nodes are an enabler of global quantum networks by overcoming the distance limitations of fiber and free-space links on ground. The design of quantum sources and receivers for satellites, however, is challenging in terms of size,…
The design of satellite missions is currently undergoing a paradigm shift from the historical approach of individualised monolithic satellites towards distributed mission configurations, consisting of multiple small satellites. With a…
Pandora is a SmallSat mission designed to study the atmospheres of exoplanets, and was selected as part of NASA's Astrophysics Pioneers Program. Transmission spectroscopy of transiting exoplanets provides our best opportunity to identify…
We assess the possibility of reducing the travel time of a crewed mission to Mars by examining four different propulsion methods and keeping the mass at departure under 2500 tonne, for a fixed architecture. We evaluated representative…
Sensitive computation often has to be performed in a trusted execution environment (TEE), which, in turn, requires tamper-proof hardware. If the computational fabric can be tampered with, we may no longer be able to trust the correctness of…
Autonomous vision-based spaceborne navigation is an enabling technology for future on-orbit servicing and space logistics missions. While computer vision in general has benefited from Machine Learning (ML), training and validating…
An approach towards wireless ranging and synchronization using commercial of-the-shelf software-defined radio payloads for small satellites, esp. CubeSats is studied. The approach only relies on the programmable logic configuration and…