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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…
The Star Watch extreme-precision astrometry mission (0.1 - 1.0 uas) builds on technology developed, and validated, during the SIM (Space Interferometry Mission) project. The sole science instrument is an optical interferometer with 50-cm…
Virtual Super-resolution Optics with Reconfigurable Swarms (VISORS) is a distributed telescope mission for high-resolution imaging of the Sun using two 6U CubeSats flying in formation in a Sun-synchronous low-Earth orbit. An optics…
In order to understand the appropriate field of view (FOV) size of celestial automatic navigation systems for surface ships, we investigate the variations of measurement accuracy of star position and probability of successful star…
Planetary bodies such as asteroids, comets, and planetary moons are high-value science targets as they hold important information about the formation and evolution of our solar system. However, due to their low-gravity, variable sizes and…
In this work, we propose a minimalistic swarm flocking approach for multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Our approach allows the swarm to achieve cohesively and aligned flocking (collective motion), in a random direction, without…
We report the first year on-orbit performance results for the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), a NASA Small Explorer that is performing a survey of the sky in two ultraviolet bands. The instrument comprises a 50 cm diameter modified…
Extragalactic surveys provide significant statistical data for the study of crucial galaxy parameters used to constrain galaxy evolution, e.g. stellar mass (M$_*$) and star formation rate (SFR), under different environmental conditions.…
Star formation is arguably the most important physical process in the cosmos. It is a fundamental driver of galaxy evolution and the ultimate source of most of the energy emitted by galaxies. A correct interpretation of star formation rate…
Understanding star formation in resolved low mass systems requires the integration of information obtained from observations at different wavelengths. We have combined new and archival multi-wavelength observations on a set of 20 nearby…
The WFIRST microlensing mission will measure precise light curves and relative parallaxes for millions of stars, giving it the potential to characterize short-period transiting planets all along the line of sight and into the galactic…
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…
Aerial displays of starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) at their communal roosts are complex: thousands of individuals form multiple flocks which are continually changing shape and density, while splitting and merging. To understand these complex…
The Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS) is a 6U CubeSat under development to monitor the flaring and chromospheric activity of M dwarfs at near-ultraviolet (NUV) and far-ultraviolet (FUV) wavelengths. The spacecraft hosts two…
Photometric Redshift is critical for analyzing astronomical objects, but existing ML methods often overlook the aleatoric uncertainties inherent in observed data. We introduce Starkindler, a novel training objective that explicitly…
Astrobots are robotic artifacts whose swarms are used in astrophysical studies to generate the map of the observable universe. These swarms have to be coordinated with respect to various desired observations. Such coordination are so…
This paper presents a novel methodology to control spacecraft swarms about singleasteroids with arbitrary gravitational potential coefficients. This approach enablesthe use of small, autonomous swarm spacecraft in conjunction with a…
Optical navigation on a CubeSat must rely on the best extraction of the directions of some beacons from on-board images. We present an experiment on OPS-SAT, a CubeSat of the European Space Agency (ESA), that will characterize an onboard…
This paper presents a nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode-based adaptive smooth control methodology for a distributed space telescope demonstration mission. The distributed space telescope has a flexible focal length that corresponds to…
The Antarctic TianMu Staring Observation Program is a time-domain optical sky survey project carried out in Antarctica, capable of large sky coverage, high-cadence sampling, and long-period staring. It utilizes the exceptional observing…