Related papers: Orbit determination methods for interplanetary mis…
This work investigates the use of stellar occultation measurements to enhance the orbit determination performance of the Lunar Meteoroid Impact Observer (LUMIO) mission, operating from a quasi-Halo orbit around the Earth-Moon L2 point.…
Modern satellite based experiments are often very complex real-time systems, composed by flight and ground segments, that have challenging resource related constraints, in terms of size, weight, power, requirements for real-time response,…
Today, the motion of spacecraft is still described by the classical Newtonian equations of motion plus some relativistic corrections. This approach might become cumbersome due to the increasing precision required. We use the Relativistic…
Reliable spatial information can be difficult to obtain in planetary remote sensing applications because of errors present in the metadata of images taken with space probes. We have designed a pipeline to address this problem on…
Precise radial velocity measurements have led to the discovery of ~100 extrasolar planetary systems. We investigate the uncertainty in the orbital solutions that have been fit to these observations. Understanding these uncertainties will…
The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission will provide simultaneous measurements from two spacecraft, offering an unprecedented opportunity to investigate magnetospheric and exospheric dynamics at Mercury as well as their interactions with the solar…
The surge of deep-space probes makes it unsustainable to navigate them with standard radiometric tracking. Self-driving interplanetary satellites represent a solution to this problem. In this work, a full vision-based navigation algorithm…
We present the results of a large scale simulation, reproducing the behavior of a data center for the build-up and maintenance of a complete catalog of space debris in the upper part of the low Earth orbits region (LEO). The purpose is to…
The Mercury Orbiter radio Science Experiment (MORE) is one of the experiments on-board the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury, to be launched in October 2018. Thanks to full on-board and on-ground instrumentation performing very…
We present theoretical analysis of the astrometric searches for extrasolar planets with the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM). Particularly, we derive a model for the future measurements with SIM and discuss the problem of reliable…
Orbit determination of spacecraft in orbit has been mostly dependent on either GNSS satellite signals or ground station telemetry. Both methods present their limitations, however: GNSS signals can only be used effectively in earth orbit,…
Recent findings on retrograde co-orbital mean-motion resonances in the Earth-Moon system, highlight the potential use of spacecraft in retrograde resonances. Based on these discoveries, this study investigates retrograde co-orbital…
(Abridged) To this purpose, in the course of the thesis work we prepared a suitable software in order to use the same spectra acquired for radial velocity determinations (i.e., with the spectrum of the Iodine cell imprinted on) to measure…
We present a framework for the analysis of direct detection planet finding missions using space telescopes. This framework generates simulations of complete missions, with varying populations of planets, to produce ensembles of mission…
A major goal of the BepiColombo mission to Mercury is the determination of the structure and state of Mercury's interior. Here the BepiColombo rotation experiment has been simulated in order to assess the ability to attain the mission goals…
This study presents an autonomous orbit determination system based on crosslink radiometric measurements applied to a future lunar CubeSat mission to clearly highlight its advantages with respect to existing ground-based navigation…
CubeSats have become a meaningful option for deep-space exploration, but their autonomy must be increased to maximize the science return while limiting the complexity in operations. We present here a solution for an autonomous orbit…
Recent advances with space navigation technologies developed by NASA in space-based atomic clocks and pulsar X-ray navigation combined with past successes in autonomous navigation using optical imaging, brings to the forefront the need to…
BepiColombo is a joint ESA/JAXA mission to Mercury with challenging objectives regarding geophysics, geodesy and fundamental physics. The Mercury Orbiter Radioscience Experiment (MORE) is one of the on-board experiments, including three…
We present methodology and mission results from orbit determination of Planet Labs nanosatellites and differential-drag control of their relative motion. Orbit determination (OD) is required on Planet Labs satellites to accurately predict…