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Advanced civilizations capable of interstellar travel, if they exist, are likely to have advanced propulsion methods. Spaceships moving at high speeds would leave a particular signature which could be detected from Earth. We propose a…
The search for biosignatures in potentially habitable exoplanets is one of the major astrophysics' drivers for the coming decades, and the prime science goal of the HWO NASA mission, a large UV-Optical-IR space telescope to be launched in…
We model accelerated trips at high-velocity aboard light sails (beam-powered propulsion in general) and radiation rockets (thrust by anisotropic emission of radiation) in terms of Kinnersley's solution of general relativity and its…
Looking to the future of exo-Earth imaging from the ground, core technology developments are required in visible extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) to enable the observation of atmospheric features such as oxygen on rocky planets in visible…
Metasurfaces is an emerging field that enables the manipulation of light by an ultra-thin structure composed of sub-wavelength antennae and fulfills an important requirement for miniaturized optical elements. Finding a new design for a…
We present a fast trajectory optimization algorithm for the soft capture of uncooperative tumbling space objects. Our algorithm generates safe, dynamically feasible, and minimum-fuel trajectories for a six-degree-of-freedom servicing…
The SuperB international team continues to optimize the design of an electron-positron collider, which will allow the enhanced study of the origins of flavor physics. The project combines the best features of a linear collider (high…
A control optimization approach is presented for a chaser spacecraft tasked with maintaining proximity to a target space object while avoiding collisions. The target object trajectory is provided numerically to account for both passive…
The three Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) spacecraft are going to be placed in a triangular formation in an Earth-trailing or Earth-leading orbit. They will be launched together on a single rocket and transferred to that science…
This paper presents the preliminary design of the descent and landing trajectory of the ESA Argonaut lunar lander. The mission scenario and driving system constraints are presented and accounted for in the design of a fuel-optimal…
With the rapid development of connecting massive devices to the Internet, especially for remote areas without cellular network infrastructures, space-air-ground integrated networks (SAGINs) emerge and offload computation-intensive tasks. In…
PODIUM is a compact spacecraft navigation unit, currently being designed to provide interplanetary missions with autonomous position and velocity estimations. The unit will make use of Pulsar X-ray observations to measure the distance and…
A solar sail is one of the most promising space exploration system because of its theoretically infinite specific impulse using solar radiation pressure (SRP). Recently, some researchers proposed "transformable spacecrafts" that can…
The detection of Earth-like exoplanets in the habitable zone of their stars, and their spectroscopic characterization in a search for biosignatures, requires starlight suppression that exceeds the current best ground-based performance by…
High Power Targetry (HPT) R&D is critical in the context of increasing beam intensity and energy for next generation accelerators. Many target concepts and novel materials are being developed and tested for their ability to withstand…
Since the geometry structure of ultra-high-pressure (UHP) water-jet nozzle is a critical factor to enhance its hydrodynamic performance, it is critical to obtain a suitable geometry for a UHP water jet nozzle. In this study, a CFD-based…
Weak gravitational lensing observations are a key science driver for the NASA Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). To validate the performance of the WFIRST infrared detectors, we have performed a laboratory emulation of weak…
We introduce a new method for inverse design of nanophotonic devices which guarantees that resulting designs satisfy strict length scale constraints - including minimum width and spacing constraints required by commercial semiconductor…
High power Earth and orbital-based directed energy (DE) systems pose a potential hazard to Earth orbiting spacecraft. The use of very high power, large aperture DE systems to propel spacecraft is being pursued as the only known, feasible…
In this paper, the trajectory planning problem for autonomous rendezvous and docking between a controlled spacecraft and a tumbling target is addressed. The use of a variable planning horizon is proposed in order to construct an appropriate…