Related papers: Bayesian Shape Reconstruction and Optimal Guidance…
The orbital dynamics of a spacecraft orbiting around irregular small celestial bodies is a challenging problem. Difficulties to model the gravity field of these bodies arise from the poor knowledge of the exact shape as observed from the…
The accurate state estimation of unknown bodies in space is a critical challenge with applications ranging from the tracking of space debris to the shape estimation of small bodies. A necessary enabler to this capability is to find and…
In addition to stellar data, Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) also contains accurate astrometry and photometry of about 14,000 asteroids covering 22 months of observations. We used Gaia asteroid photometry to reconstruct rotation periods, spin…
Gaia Data Release 3 contains accurate photometric observations of more than 150,000 asteroids covering a time interval of 34 months. With a total of about 3,000,000 measurements, a typical number of observations per asteroid ranges from a…
Many algorithms for the computation of correspondences between deformable shapes rely on some variant of nearest neighbor matching in a descriptor space. Such are, for example, various point-wise correspondence recovery algorithms used as a…
Surface shedding of an asteroid is a failure mode where surface materials fly off due to strong centrifugal forces beyond the critical spin period, while the internal structure does not deform significantly. This paper proposes a possible…
Hazardous asteroid has been one of the concerns for humankind as fallen asteroid on earth could cost a huge impact on the society.Monitoring these objects could help predict future impact events, but such efforts are hindered by the large…
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…
The dynamical behavior of spacecraft around asteroids is a key element in design of such missions. An asteroid's irregular shape, non-spherical mass distribution and its rotational sate make the dynamics of spacecraft quite complex. This…
Local optimization presents a promising approach to expensive, high-dimensional black-box optimization by sidestepping the need to globally explore the search space. For objective functions whose gradient cannot be evaluated directly,…
Asteroid phase curves are used to derive fundamental physical properties through the determination of the absolute magnitude H. The upcoming visible Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and mid-infrared Near-Earth Object Surveillance…
Asteroid pairs had a single progenitor that split due to rotational-fission of a weak, rubble-pile structured body. By constructing shape models of asteroid pairs from multiple-apparition observations and using a lightcurve inversion…
By using directional distance sensors that have unknown locations, this paper proposes a method of estimating the shape of a location-unknown target object $T$ moving with unknown speed on an unknown straight line trajectory. Regardless of…
In this work, we explore how to classify asteroids in co-orbital motion with a given planet using Machine Learning. We consider four different kinds of motion in mean motion resonance with the planet, nominally Tadpole, Horseshoe and…
Autonomous spacecraft relative navigation technology has been planned for and applied to many famous space missions. The development of on-board electronics systems has enabled the use of vision-based and LiDAR-based methods to achieve…
Bayesian optimal design is considered for experiments where the response distribution depends on the solution to a system of non-linear ordinary differential equations. The motivation is an experiment to estimate parameters in the equations…
This paper first defines a class of estimation problem called simultaneous navigation and characterization (SNAC), which is a superset of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). A SNAC framework is then developed for the Autonomous…
International and U.S. strategies and protocols have identified the need to develop rapid-response spacecraft reconnaissance capabilities as a priority to advance planetary defense readiness. A space-based reconnaissance response is…
Many subsurface engineering applications require accurate knowledge of the in-situ state of stress for their safe design and operation. Existing methods to meet this need primarily include field measurements for estimating one or more of…
As space traffic continues to increase in the cislunar region, accurately determining the trajectories of objects operating within this domain becomes critical. However, due to the combined gravitational influences of the Earth and Moon,…